Female Iranian filmmaker Bahar (Mehrnoosh Sattari) prepares for a day on set with an increasingly mutinous cast. “You’re torturing us,” says Sina (Saeed Naderi), the acting leader of that fictional film set’s one man rebellion. That’s because Bahar forces him and the all male cast to wear headscarves, like women wear in films in Iran. Head to Head‘s film within a film is a closed set because of its controversial subject matter. Practically illegal, the moral police raids the set but both Bahar and Sina manage to escape. The two of them, including their BTS director Ebi (Ebrahim Azizi), drive back to their home city, Tehran. The journey back has Bahar ‘imposing’ her will on both men who can sense an increasing danger.

While Bahar deals with the power struggle in the van, Head to Head spices things up more. It does this as it introduces Bahar’s shitty ex Jamshid (Bahador Bastanhag), which makes Sina realize the former’s ethos towards her filmmaking. There’s also an older female passenger (Lily Farhadpour) who tells her to scarf up. Even supporting characters get their nuance in a film where people have motivations coming to light. Most films ask their viewers what their characters want and how one imposes their will on others. Instead, this film is one of many that ask why these characters want things, which is more interesting. It applies universal concepts like this to Iranian culture where people are yearning to break certain oppressive rules.