'3 Faces': An Urgent Plea Sends A Director And Actress To A Rural Iranian Village

During the first eight years of a 20-year filmmaking ban imposed by the Iranian government, Jafar Panahi has been unable to leave the country, but he keeps pushing his creative limits, proving the adage that necessity is the mother of invention. His first film under the ban, cagily titled , was produced under house arrest and smuggled to Cannes on a flash drive embedded in a birthday cake. His subsequent and , have expanded those boundaries considerably while also sticking to a set of core conceits: Panahi and other collaborators playing version of themselves, secret productions shot on small cameras or smart phones, and a hybridization of documentary and fiction styles. By not making films, he's discovered extraordinary new ways of making them.