Director: Jafar Panahi
Cast: Behnaz Jafari, Jafar Panahi, Marziyeh Rezaei, Maedeh Erteghaei, Narges Del Aram
3 Rokh (Three Faces) is a 2018 Iranian drama film directed by Jafar Panahi, running approximately 100 minutes. The film unfolds as a road journey across the mountainous northwest of Iran, examining the lives of women navigating the tension between personal ambition and communal expectation.
What is 3 Rokh about?
When acclaimed actress Behnaz Jafari receives a distressing video message from a young woman pleading for help — the girl's family has refused to let her pursue acting studies in Tehran — Jafari sets aside her ongoing film production to seek out the sender. She enlists director Jafar Panahi, and together they drive deep into the rural northwest, eventually reaching the isolated mountain village where the young woman lives. Along the way they encounter warm and forthcoming locals, yet also witness how deeply ancestral customs shape everyday choices, especially for women in the community. The film presents three distinct figures whose stories circle a shared theme: what does it mean for a woman to choose her own path when tradition exerts its weight?
Cast & crew
Behnaz Jafari, one of Iran's most recognized stage and screen performers, plays a version of herself, lending the film an unusually candid quality. Director Jafar Panahi also appears as himself, serving as both filmmaker and character. The ensemble is rounded out by Marziyeh Rezaei, Maedeh Erteghaei, and Narges Del Aram, each embodying one of the film's central female figures.
Context & significance
3 Rokh sits within a long tradition of Iranian cinema that blends documentary texture with fiction, a style pioneered by directors such as Abbas Kiarostami. The road-movie format allows Panahi to observe rural life in Iran's Azerbaijan region with quiet attention, letting landscapes and brief exchanges carry significant weight. For diaspora viewers with roots in Iran, the film offers a considered portrait of village customs and the generational pull between old ways and individual aspiration — subjects that resonate across communities, whether inside the country or abroad. The film's matter-of-fact rhythm and its framing of three women at different stages of life make it a notable entry in contemporary Iranian drama.
Where & how to watch
3 Rokh is available on K-Time. The film is presented in its original Persian audio with English subtitles — no Persian dubbing or Persian subtitles are included. Watch on the web, your TV, or your phone with no extra download and no geo-blocking. Cancel anytime.