REDCAT: After casting painter and video artist Mania Akbari as the central figure of his groundbreaking Ten (2002), and then witnessing her outstanding debut as a feature film director in 20 Fingers (2004), Abbas Kiarostami urged Akbari to direct a sequel to Ten. In Dah be alaveh Chahar (10 + 4), though, circumstances are different: Mania is fighting cancer. She has undergone surgery; she has lost her hair following chemotherapy and no longer wears the compulsory headscarf; and sometimes she is too weak to drive. So the camera follows her to record conversations with friends and family in different spaces, from a gondola to a hospital bed. Treading an elegant line between documentary and fiction, Akbari takes a daring look at complex social situations that arise in the face of mortality--and emerges with a new zest for life.

See http://redcat.org/season/0708/fv/akbari.php ($)