20 Fingers
Directed by Mania Akbari
Reviewed by Catherine MacLennan
Mania Akbari's film 20 Fingers follows a couple discussing, or more often, arguing about their relationship, as well as male and female relationships in general. Arguments about abortion, divorce, adultery, and homosexuality take place in a car, a motorbike, a ski lift, a train and in a restaurant. As each scene ends, the viewer wonders if they will even exist as a couple in the next scene, but there they are, thrashing out the next subject.
The director and screenwriter Mania Akbari plays the female part of the combustible couple and Bijan Daneshmand is the male. The male character needs to dominate, and be in control; the female character is strong, defiant, and capable of fighting back. She attempts to expand the discussions beyond the ordinary, beyond their relationship, possessing a mind that can see beyond the present or current confines of a society. She asks if he ever imagined being a woman, and wonders if it is possible to love more than one person at a time.
Akbari and Daneshmand seem completely natural together and their exchanges genuine - a completely believable couple at war. The film is both universal and particular to its location. While battling couples can exist anywhere, social issues specific to Iran where there is a lack of personal freedom underline the urgency of these battles. Having the scenes on different modes of transport provides visual and narrative interest, but it also indicates the fact that they and society are on a journey; the debate, like life continues - it does not stop and will not go away. That this debate takes place in public, on modes of transport or in a restaurant emphasizes that these issues are not limited to one couple, but the whole of society is involved. The last scene suggests that Akbari, in the end, sees a peaceful resolution to the issues affecting male-female relations. Abandoning their characters, they discuss playing the roles, saying they bring out the different sides of themselves - it is an understanding of the other that brings about personal and social peace.
The Lamp, October 2004