Woman, Life, Liberty: The Day I Became A Woman + The House Is Black
Feminist Cinema From Iran
"Stunner of a film… an astonishing directorial debut" - New York Times
The Day I Became A Woman
Dir: Marzieh Meshkini
2000
78 Minutes
Persian with English subtitles
A beautiful and intense triptych of three stages of a woman's life, this marks an extraordinary directorial debut for Marziyeh Meshkini. Alternately funny, surreal, and heartbreaking, and filled with breathtaking imagery. Episode one, entitled "Havva," concerns a young girl on the morning of her ninth birthday. Against her better wishes, she is forced to stay home, away from her best friend who has asked her to play with him, due to her mother and grandmother's proclamation that she is now a woman. Learning she was born at noon, the young girl requests one more hour to do what she wishes so she can be a girl one last time. Episode two, entitled "Ahoo," follows a young woman who is being pursued on horseback by her stern husband, whom she is fleeing on bicycle in the midst of a women's biking race. Soon, her in-laws and relatives are also pursuing her, and she must make a quick decision about whether or not to return to family life. The final episode, called "Houra," follows an elderly woman who enlists the help of a young boy and his friends to take her on a shopping spree, where she intends to buy all of the things she has ever wanted out of life.
Preceded by
The House Is Black
Dir: Forugh Farrokhzad
1962
21 Minutes
Persian with English subtitles
The only film directed by trailblazing feminist Iranian poet Forough Farrokhzad finds unexpected grace where few would think to look: a leper colony whose inhabitants live, worship, learn, play, and celebrate in a self-contained community cut off from the rest of the world.
Admission is by donation