20 Fingers

DIR: Mania Akbari | Iran | 2004 | 72min
In Farsi with English subtitles.

SHOWTIMES:
Thurs. Sept 30 | 6:40pm | Granville 7 Cinema, Theatre 3
Sun. Oct. 3 | 11:30am | Granville 7 Cinema, Theatre 3

**JUST ADDED**
Sun. Oct 3 | 2:20pm | Granville 7 Cinema, Theatre 6

People famliar with Abbas Kiarostami might recognise director/writer/producer/actress Mania Akbari from Ten. I am pleased to report that this woman's talents only begin at acting. 20 Fingers, her feature-length directorial debut, is an incisive eye-opening film about gender relations in contemporary Iran. Each scene consists of a 10-minute, one-shot dialogue between two characters (played by Akbari and Bijan Daneshmand). Usually, though not in every scene, the two characters are a couple - Mania, a progressive woman who says what's on her mind and Bijan, a not-so-progressive man who also says what's on his mind; they honestly discuss subjects that range from abortion and adultery to lesbian experimentation and jealousy. The results are sometimes explosive and always entrancing in their intimacy. Dedicated to master filmmaker Kiarostami, the director has carefully placed his influence throughout the film.

Purposefully shot on DV in Iran (where 35mm equipment must be borrowed from the state), 20 Fingers has been effectively rejected by state censors and will not be shown on a large screen. Luckily for the rest of us, prints are making their way around the world - to places like the Venice Film Festival, where it took the top prize for 'Digitale' filmmaking earlier this year. 20 Fingers is a startlingly accomplished debut - keep an eye on this director.