One of Iran's premier female directors returns to shine a light on the country's current state of affairs, and its impact on the lives of ordinary people.

For eight years, Rakhshan Banietemad (Nargess, MIFF 1993) withdrew from helming fictional features in protest at her nation's restrictive regime. Now, she pieces together an anthology of portraits of the working class, their struggles and their shared humanity.

From a taxi driver helping a penniless mother and child, to a documentarian making a movie about modern workers, to adult siblings seeking revenge against their wealthy father, the film follows intertwined plights across a mosaic of seven stories, revisiting characters from the filmmaker's three-decade career.

Earning the award for Best Screenplay at the 2014 Venice Film Festival as well as the Asia Pacific Screen Awards Jury Grand Prize, Tales shifts between suspense, satire and sympathy in its culturally specific yet emotionally universal slices of life, as shot with handheld intimacy.

"Darkly unsettling … a Bani-Etemad work full of emotional confrontations and on-the-money acting from Iran's finest, able to turn familiar social issues into watchable drama." – Hollywood Reporter