Director's Cut

One of the hot tickets at the New York Film Festival last week was Ten , a deceptively simple movie about an Iranian woman and her car. Its two screenings sold out immediately, says festival director Richard Peña. But one key invitee wasn't able to make it — the celebrated director Abbas Kiarostami, who made Ten and was scheduled to lead a post-screening discussion about it. Because of post-9/11 security measures, he was stuck at home in Tehran. Asked about the matter, Kiarostami gives a modest shrug of resignation. "Perhaps you should write a piece on the role of terrorists in filmmaking,"...