Iran in Focus: '20 Fingers' (2004)

(Written as part of an imaginary Iranian Film Festival Programme, Spring 2016)

(20 Fingers)

Mania Akbari, one of Iran’s most interesting and controversial artists today, made and starred in her highly acclaimed 20 Fingers and was instantly catapulted to the forefront of contemporary Iranian cinema as a burning talent. After making her acting debut in Abbas Kiarostrami’s Ten (2003), she has gone on to direct some of the most subversive and interesting films of contemporary Iranian cinema. Her free speaking art has in turn resulted in persecution In her home country by Iranian authorities. For a few years now she has effectively lived in exile in the United Kingdom because her freedom of expression, especially as she is a female director talking about female issues, would be further controlled and restricted in Iran. It is no surprise then that this film that deals with themes such as homosexuality and sexual liberation has been banned from being screened uncut in Iran today.

In modern day Iran, 20 Fingers follows seven different couples engaged in intimate and revealing conversation, separated into seven vignettes but played by the same actors, Akbari being one of them. The result is a masterfully crafted investigation into Iran’s social conventions, and into the universal struggles and games we all may play in relationships. One of the most striking aspects of the film is that it is split into seven long takes which suck you in like a vacuum into these conversations. One of the sequences has earned praise throughout the world as being technically magnificent and has been labelled as complex, if not more, as the copa-cabana sequence in Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas (1990).

Her Scorsese-esque quality is not the only example of her cinematic brilliance. She superbly crafts the dialogue and with the cameras moving back and forth between characters, it is as if their emotions, ideologies, and desires bounce off each other and float in the air for all of us to see. What we see is a mirror of ourselves, and an example of a female Iranian director flexing her cinematic muscles with seamless ease.

A Q&A and discussion panel with Mania Akbari and Mark Cousins – 15:00-16:15 Mania Akbari and Mark Cousins, British film director, historian and critic, share a very

special relationship in both the cinematic world and their personal worlds. They have been close friends for a while now, and have also made a film together titled Life Maybe (2014), so we are extremely enthusiastic to be able to give you the opportunity to learn about Akbari’s career and incredibly interesting life, as well as what has formed the Iranian cinema of today and the issues it faces.