Ava

A revealing look at life under a theocracy based in part on the director’s own experiences, Ava tells the gripping coming-of-age story of a bright, 16-year-old girl trying to navigate Iran’s social restrictions and her suspicious, intrusive mother. When the latter forces Ava to visit an OB-GYN to test her virginity, the teen is pushed to the brink and rebels against everyone in her life. (103 mins., DCP)

Making her feature debut with Ava, writer-director Sadaf Foroughi has expressed a deep affinity for the films of Ingmar Bergman, the subject of our retrospective Ingmar Bergman at 100.