REPORTER: Colin Cosier

The set of a new movie being made by the controversial Iranian filmmaker Tahmineh Milani. She is just completing the final scenes of the film. It's called 'Payback' and it's a story of women's revenge. Tahmineh Milani is famous for making films that explore the lives and experiences of Iranian women - and for getting into trouble because of it.

TAHMINEH MILANI, IRANIAN FILMMAKER, (Translation): A society that reduces women to mere sexual objects would have to pay a very high price for it.

'Payback' might prove to be her most contentious movie to date. It deals with issues seldom discussed in the Islamic Republic including drugs, prostitution, and violence.

FILM ACTOR, (Translation): “Leila had a daughter. The baby was born in prison. They gave the baby to the mother. Our grandfather said, starve the baby to death. He didn't want Afghan blood in the family.”

Although still being edited, 'Payback' is about four women who meet in prison. When they get out, they form a vigilante gang to hand out their own brand of justice to men. The women lure their victims into their trap by posing as prostitutes. The men are kidnapped, taken to the group's hideaway, given a moral lecture and then beaten up.

FILM ACTOR, (Translation): “Lock up the car after you finish, sweetie, so the buggers can't steal it.”

FILM ACTOR, (Translation): “Come on, girls, let's beat him up.”

REPORTER: What will the average Iranian man think of this film?

TAHMINEH MILANI, (Translation): Open-minded men are sure to like this film. I think they'd very much appreciate it, but a typical man, the type I portray in the film, is sure to become quite angry and may want to retaliate and look for payback.

FILM ACTOR, (Translation): “Just you wait. Once I'm out of this, I'll get you back so hard the birds will cry for you.”

FILM ACTOR, (Translation): “Okay, Maryam, help him out a bit.”

FILM ACTOR, (Translation): “Are you crazy? What did you do that for?”

To shoot a film in Iran, the script needs approval from the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance. Then it's reviewed by a state censor before theatrical release. Her controversial 2001 film 'The Hidden Half' was fully approved but even so, after a month in the cinemas, Tahmineh was arrested and jailed.

TAHMINEH MILANI, (Translation): I had four charges made against me when I was arrested - acting against national security, denying God's existence, campaigning and conducting activities for groups outside Iran, promoting anti-Islamic ideas under the guise of art. Each of these charges could have carried a death penalty. They thought that I wanted to promote anti-political groups. I also think that my arrest served as a warning from the government to other filmmakers against entering those forbidden territories because the four years of cultural revolution in Iran is taboo.

In jail, Tahmineh met a woman who became the inspiration for her current film, 'Payback'.

TAHMINEH MILANI, (Translation): I wrote the story, but the characters are based on real people in this society. Amongst those women prisoners was a woman we called Mahnaz, though that was not her real name. She had this group.. a group formed with other women, which had some special activities. And I was profoundly influenced by this woman’s personality and worldview. She believed that is the society ignores her as a human being then it deserves to be ignored by her. I based the script for my film 'Payback' on this.

When news of her arrest became public, Tahmineh found an ally in Hollywood. A Chicago-based film company began an Internet petition calling for Tahmineh's release. It was signed by some of the biggest names in Hollywood, including the Coppolas, Oliver Stone and Martin Scorsese. After six days of imprisonment, the President asked for Tahmineh's release.

TAHMINEH MILANI, (Translation): I was freed by order of the Leader of the Revolution. If it were now, I wouldn't have been arrested. At the time, there was a rivalry between the two competing political factions and maybe I was sacrificed in the battle against Khatami. Maybe that was the reason for my arrest.

In the streets of Tehran, Iranians are divided over Tahmineh's films.

WOMAN (Translation): I very much like Tahmineh Milani's films because she focuses on women's issues. She doesn't exaggerate her characters. She shows things the way they are.

MAN, (Translation): I don't like the way her stories unfold. Sometimes she tends to exaggerate the oppression to which women are subjected. Maybe there is a lot of oppression, but on the other hand, men are not really like that.

Under the Iranian legal system, women don't often share equal status with men. In some cases, a women's evidence in court has only half the weight of a man's. A Muslim man is free to marry a non-Muslim woman, while a marriage between a non-Muslim man and a Muslim woman is invalid. And a boy becomes a man at 15, while a girl is a woman at the age of 9, this makes her eligible for any punishment applicable to an adult. At a film industry gathering in Tehran, I talk with another Iranian filmmaker, Rakhshan Bani Etemad.

RAKHSHAN BANI ETEMAD, IRANIAN FILMMAKER, (Translation): Tahmineh's sharp focus on women's rights and issues makes her one of the most unrelenting and serious filmmakers in the field. Her movies always pave the way to new debates.

DR AMIR HOUSHANG HASHEMI, JOURNALIST, (Translation): In my opinion, the way she portrays women in her films is not a realistic view.

Dr Amir Houshang Hashemi writes for Iran's largest film magazine, 'Picture World'.

DR AMIR HOUSHANG HASHEMI, (Translation): Many women whom I know and speak to object to the way Mrs Milani portrays women in her films.

While opinions about taste differ, it's agreed her movies deal with issues no-one else in the country dares touch.

FILM ACTOR, (Translation): “Do you know what your problem is? You've lost your inner beauty and violence has taken you over. But you can show yourselves differently. Do some humanitarian or cultural work. For example, clean the dirt and evil from your clothes and dishes. Wash up the laundry, change babies nappies.”

FILM ACTOR, (Translation): “Dear sparrows, go ahead and do your laundry. Feel good? How's that?”

Mohammad Nikbin is Tahmineh's husband, film producer and preferred actor. He plays the only respectable man in the story and has an interesting take on how 'Payback' was approved.

MOHAMMAD NIKBIN, ACTOR: You see or maybe you talk only about the beating part of it. There is a lot more than that in the film or the message that the film has. And also if they are beating men, they have chosen men that maybe from their point of view they deserve to be beaten. What are they doing picking up women on the street when it is something illegal? At a certain point you come to certain common interests or objectives that you can work together.

Tahmineh Milani is the most commercially successful filmmaker in Iran. Her previous film was a record-breaking box office hit.

TAHMINEH MILANI, (Translation): I think, because of the Islamic ideology in Iran, we can neither have a feminist filmmaker nor an activist. This is the title that's been given to me because my movies are about the violations of women's rights. That may have seemed to them to be feminist, hence the name Mrs Feminist Filmmaker. My challenge is to create a positive change in my society and my first priority is to the Iranian people. I think I have an ability to make a positive cultural change through filmmaking.