Marziyah Meshkini’s first feature – which New Yorker critic Richard Brody called “a masterwork of symbolic cinema” – is divided into three stories, each depicting an Iranian woman at a different stage in her life. A nine-year-old tries to enjoy the last of her childhood privileges before her entry into “womanhood” forces her to give them up; a married woman joins a bicycle race, upending not only her marriage but seemingly the entire patriarchy; and an older widow buys everything she’s ever wanted, now that she can. Meshkini is part of the astonishing Makhmalbaf clan, which might top even the Hustons for having made more worthwhile films than any other extended family. Her husband, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, collaborated with Meshkini on the screenplay; her niece and stepdaughter (it’s complicated) Maysam Makhmalbaf was both an editor and the still photographer.

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