Mohsen Makhmalbaf wrote and produced this exposé of the daily frustrations facing Iranian women for his wife, director Marziyeh Meshkini. But this is very much her film.
While The Circle offered an urban perspective on the same subject, this triptych was filmed on Kish Island, where tradition is more deeply entrenched. What makes it so affecting is that each segment has its own atmosphere.
The tale of the little girl permitted a last day's play before she takes the chador has a simple poignance. A family's disapproving pursuit of a woman competing in a cycling race combines madcap comedy with biting social satire, while an old lady's gleeful acquisition of domestic appliances after a life of hardship amounts to feel-good, Iranian style. Minor, maybe, but memorable.