Ten

A woman drives through Tehran and picks up ten different passengers. The whole film is those ten conversations. Among them are her son Amin, her sister, a devout woman, a sex worker, a woman hoping to marry, and her ex-husband. The camera shoots from two points fixed inside the car and never leaves it. Abbas Kiarostami is credited as director. Since 2020, however, the actress Mania Akbari has disputed that credit, saying she recorded 120 hours of footage for a personal project which Kiarostami then edited and shaped into the film. It screened at the Cannes Film Festival in 2002 and was banned in Iran for addressing gender discrimination. Rotten Tomatoes sits at 85 percent. One critic wrote that Kiarostami understands the automobile as a place for reflection, observation and above all talk; another called it a conceptual tour de force. It placed 76th on the Guardian's list of the 100 best films of the 21st century. One more note: both lead actresses have asked distributors to stop screening the film, citing allegations of plagiarism and abuse. Who it is for: viewers interested in formal experiment and in the daily texture of being a woman in Iran. Who it is not for: anyone who would accept the credits without question. Who the work belongs to is an open dispute today.