TIFF 2026: Head to Head (dir. Ghasideh Golmakani) | Review
A thought-provoking, experimental yet courageous concept that turns the tables halfway, and lets the transformation finish its arc boldly. TIFF’s Head to Head will astonish you.
The final frames of the 2024 Iranian film The Witness still linger — and perhaps always will. The fight of Iranian women for justice is not just news — it deserves to be seen, to be honoured. And director Ghasideh Golmakani brings that same fire to TIFF with Head to Head — a film whose craft will astonish you.
Bahar (Mehrnoosh Satari) is directing a film with an unconventional premise — the cast consists entirely of male actors who are required to wear headscarves and skirts. There is no role reversal — they remain themselves. They are simply men in those garments, and the narrative revolves around this: daily conversations, activities, and the struggle. The question remains — can they sustain the role, and can production proceed smoothly?
The film is not a shoot — it is a revelation camp, where the director, crew and actors dig into the essence of “why.” It pulls back the curtain on struggle, on objective, on misogyny — relentlessly. And it matters. This is Golmakani’s experimental bonanza, an awakening for eyes, minds, and the world. In the film, the male actors and crew have no access to phones, and the film is being made against the law — and that is exactly where the women like Bahar’s courage lives. Golmakani takes a single idea and grows it into a full-length film, burying its issues under vast, careful layers — a feat worthy of applause. Behind the scenes, it isn’t just a mood — it’s the misery of Iranian women, caught literally through the lens. And with quiet irony, the film shows how a scarf — a simple accessory — becomes a weapon against choice and will. A reformation’s backbone, illuminated for dissection, and the film’s surgery was performed with remarkable precision.
The film then raises the question of what it means to accept a role imposed by the system, against the grain of what is presented as “normal” — and it shows this dilemma unfolding on parallel tracks. Is this a battle that men, too, must fully experience — not as spectators, but as participants? It then invites further inquiry into the concealed sacrifices of Iranian women. Where do the boundaries lie, and to what extent is Bahar’s crew desperate? Even then, it demonstrates that all Bahar’s selected actors and crew are moving towards a prison-like condition. Is this a state of torture? It is, in fact, a woman’s confrontation with the system itself — and the magnitude of her courage serves as a form of enlightenment: the fight for women’s justice is not exclusively bounded by females but should be carried by men as well. Credit is due to the whole acting ensemble, whose performances introduce a measure of harmony amid the absurdity, where the film’s beautiful chaos illustrates the complexity inherent in important decisions.
TIFF selection Head to Head is a revelation — a thought-provoking, experimental, and courageous endeavour that conveys the suffering of Iranian women as a universally felt experience. It may appear to be a film within a film, yet it is, in fact, reality embedded within a sub-reality — a multifaceted concept. Prepare yourself — sacrifice doesn’t stay quiet. It stretches into provocation, pushing reality out of the frame. We step into the concept, into the aim of them all, until the frame itself becomes the world we live in.
The 51st edition of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) runs September 10–20, 2026
