After twelve years of imprisonment by their own parents, two Iranian sisters are finally released by social workers to face the outside world for the first time.
Direction
Samira Makhmalbaf was 17. SEVENTEEN. The confidence is criminal.
Production
Real family, real house, scripted reenactment — ethics? What ethics?
Cinematography
Walls closing in, then sudden blinding Tehran sunlight.
Director
Samira Makhmalbaf
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Samira Makhmalbaf dropped out of school at 14 to apprentice under her father, director Mohsen Makhmalbaf. She made this at 17, becoming the youngest director in Cannes competition history.
The 'apple' refers to both the fruit and the girls' skin tone — a term used by their father to justify their imprisonment, claiming their 'whiteness' made them vulnerable to sin in the outside world.
FR
