Iranian Director Saeed Roustayee on Making ‘Woman and Child’ With a Government Permit and Hijabs: I Wouldn’t ‘Have Been Able to Make a Film of This Scale Underground’

Iranian director Saeed Roustayee is back in Cannes with “Woman and Child,” a female empowerment drama premiering in competition. The film follows a 40-year-old widowed nurse named Mahnaz, who is struggling with a rebellious son and other complications in a heavily oppressive patriarchal context. Roustayee’s new work segues from the somewhat similarly themed “Leila’s Brothers,” […]