TEN
Directed & Written by: Abbas Kiarostami.
Produced by: Marin Karmitz & Abbas Kiarostami.
Edited by: Abbas Kiarostami, et al.
Music by: Howard Blake.
Released by: Zeitgeist.
Language: Farsi with English subtitles.
Country of Origin: Iran/France. 90 min. Not Rated.
With: Mania Akbari.
DVD Features: Behind-the-scenes documentary 10 on Ten. Kiarostami filmography. Production notes.

Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami's quietly compelling 2002 film counts down 10 separate conversations in one car - driven by an attractively stylish young mother and divorcée - as it meanders through the busy streets of Tehran. The first conversation (and the only one not between two women) is with her son, whose feelings about her remarrying have made him antagonistic. The camera never leaves the boy, capturing his every thought and reaction, every joke and line of attack, as he argues with his mother and the bustling city passes by behind him. Later on, the driver picks up a prostitute and the situation is reversed, with only the driver's reactions visible as the prostitute proudly defends her life to the inquisitive woman at the wheel: "I don't need anyone. It's you women who are all unhappy."

In these and eight other conversations, the film invites us to sympathize with both driver and passenger in different ways. If the "candid" conceit occasionally becomes self-conscious (the absentminded fidgeting of a passenger who thinks she's alone feels contrived), the performances by the amateur cast are excellent. Ten's deceptively simple premise and Kiarostami's ingeniously minimal approach offer a sophisticated portrait of the problem of female independence in Iran today, one that should prove anything but alien to women in any modern society. As if it contained merely one of millions of similar stories, the car's incessant motion through the enveloping traffic mimics a ceaseless quest for happiness, while the frank talk within this private bubble becomes the literal vehicle of its exploration.

DVD Extras: Ten advances Kiarostami's recent flirtation with digital video cameras, first used in the final sequence of A Taste of Cherry (more or less per force, after an accident at the processing lab destroyed the filmed footage); and more recently, almost as an afterthought, while scouting locations for his ABC Africa. Enchanted with the unique potential of these small, relatively unobtrusive cameras, Kiarostami deliberately combines them with the unique social setting of the car (a longstanding favorite locale) to achieve Ten's intimacy and frankness. These and other matters come up in an informative and interesting (especially to film buffs) discussion in the loquacious 83-minute cinema lesson 10 on Ten, as the self-taught auteur discusses his approach to film in general and Ten in particular - all from behind the wheel, of course. Robert Avila, who has written extensively on Iranian Cinema for The San Francisco Bay Guardian
December 6, 2004