Ranking with The Apple, this three-part feature from Iran is one of the most impressive films to have emerged so far from the Makhmalbaf Film Housea utopian school run by Mohsen Makhmalbaf whose students are mainly family members. A first feature directed by his wife, Marziyeh Meshkini (and, like The Apple, which was directed by his daughter Samira, scripted by Makhmalbaf), it offers us three imaginative and poetic allegorical sketchesall filmed in southern Iran’s gorgeous Kish Islandabout what it means to be a woman: in childhood (a girl turns nine, which means forsaking her friendship with a boy), in young motherhood (a woman in a chador pedals down the coast chased by men on horses who insist she return to her household duties), and in old age (a dotty old lady on an extravagant and surrealist shopping spree). Lovely to watch and entrancing to think about, this is one of the most purely entertaining recent films in the Iranian new wave. In farsi with subtitles. 80 min. (JR)