How do you film what cannot be shown? How do you depict interactions that are forbidden? In post-revolutionary Iran, these are not merely theoretical questions. They are everyday realities for filmmakers. One of the government restrictions they must navigate is the prohibition against showing male and female characters touching. How do they circumvent this draconian rule? By using bags as mediators. This well-observed video essay by Maryam Tafakory explores how they do so.

Her edit features excerpts from a sizeable number of Iranian films made between 1990 and 2018, in which prop bags play a remarkable role. They become sites of conflict and struggle. They act as proxies for bodily contact. They convey affectionate touches or create a barrier for combative ones. Tafakory brings together many examples of how this everyday prop becomes a subtle way to evade government censorship of intergender contact.

For several years already, Maryam Tafakory has been creating delicate works, both video essays and live stage presentations, about womanhood, intimacy, and the cinema of her native country. This video essay is a prime example. It also excels through the elegance of its form. Tafakory uses on-screen captions to convey her observations, but does so sparingly. Unlike many academic attempts at this format, her texts never get in the way of the film excerpts. The length of those excerpts is carefully balanced with the time needed to read the captions. Her use of side-by-side editing highlights and visualizes the interpersonal relationships fostered by the bags. Rhythmic repetitions and isolated close-ups draw attention to details that might otherwise be missed by non-Iranian viewers.