Here's something new, a film about HIV/AIDS that doesn't use the words "HIV" or "AIDS", doesn't have any significant gay content, and doesn't focus on sexual transmission - or indeed on sexual relationships; the sex in the movie is mainly about exploitation of one kind or another. Blood and blood products feature prominently in each of the three segments, and non-sexual relationships between the sexes (mother and son, nuns and doctors).<br /><br />Since they are completely unrelated, except for that, the decision to untangle them was a wise one, and the version I saw, with a prologue flashing forward to the middle of the third segment, makes the three complicated plot lines about as clear as they could be. In each, greed and poverty feature strongly. The life of the shanty-dwellers in the third segment is particularly grim. I agree that the message (as old as Oedipus - those who try to avert disaster can bring it on) is spelled out, but when it's Olympia Dukakis' gentle voice doing it, I don't mind.<br /><br />Much of the scenery is beautiful but the initiation ritual at the opening is not, no matter how "age old" - it's leg-crossingly painful. With circumcision being increasingly touted as a way to prevent HIV transmission, it's useful to be reminded that it can also facilitate it.<br /><br />The film has some smiles, no laughs and plenty of irony, like The Green Shop, where hypodermic needles are recycled.<br /><br />"3 Needles" will have you thinking about the issues it raises - and does not resolve - long after it is over.