Original title: بیست انگشت
Year: 2004
Director: Mania Akbari
Runtime: 72 minutes
Country: Iran
Language: Persian with English subtitles
Rating: NC16
Awards
BEST DIGITAL FILM
61st Venice International Film Festival 2004
Synopsis
In seven intimate vignettes shot on a handheld digital video camera, director Mania Akbari and Bijan Daneshmand play a couple – or several different couples – engaging in candid conversations about the relationships between women and men. Tensions mount in their frank discussions of jealousy, adultery, divorce, abortion, and lesbianism, revealing the power dynamics at play in a society where freedom and control are closely circumscribed.
Recognised for her acting role in the film 10 by Abbas Kiarostami – which she has since revealed was plagiarised by the acclaimed director, who merely edited the footage that she had shot – Mania Akbari represents a dauntlessly feminist voice in Iranian cinema. Looking unflinchingly at repressive gender norms, Akbari’s debut feature 20 Fingers is an incisive microcosm of a modernising Iran negotiating shifting social values at the turn of the century.
This film is part of the programme Y2K Dreamz. The full programme for Y2K DreamZ can be found here.
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