Just off camera in the fascinating, highly unusual opening scene set in a Tokyo bar, Akiko carries on a contentious cell phone conversation with, we'll learn, her boyfriend Noriaki. He'll appear a bit later in the slyly presented interaction among three people, a collision of temperaments more than a romantic triangle.

Iranian writer/director Abbas Kiarostami makes films that pursue a provocative topic rather than a narrative story. He reflects on suicide in Taste of Cherry, on community in The Wind Will Carry Us, and on filmmaking itself in Through the Olive Trees. In his latest work Certified Copy, a couple debate the nature of relationships, authenticity and aesthetics.