Der Tag an dem ich zur Frau wurde

I had completely forgotten about this movie, until I had a dream about the bicycles and the beach at the end. The more I thought back, the more I wanted to see it again.

I know this film has a very firm political message, but the images are so simple, universal and kinda powerful they linger with you, or at least have with me for years.

Three stories, none of which connect, about woman living in Iran, a young girl who finds out she has has to go to the "all girls" school soon, leaving behind her male friends, a woman bicycles away from her wedding and refuses to pull over, an and elderly woman whose husband is dead who can now do what she has always wanted, create the home of her dreams, with furniture right along the beach; a house without walls.

Effective, original, and poignant. When does one, become a woman(or man), and why? How is it different for each character, how is it the same, and what does is spell out once it's all putt together? ...almost makes me want to learn to ride a bike.

This is a beautifully shot, richly textured film. Its decidedly surrealist elements do not detract from its poignant central message: that the arbitrary social conventions which govern womens' lives in Iran are inherently absurd. What is so striking about this film is the way in which the director brings out this element of absurdity by transplanting an Iranian narrative onto the bizarre setting of Kish Island, a free trade zone and resort off the coast of Iran. The women in the film are all forced to play out the roles assigned for them by Iranian society, despite the virtual absence of the state, which is so often demonized in treatments of Iranian women's lives.

I felt the need to defend this film as I don't believe it deserves the above rant. It is true that we are not given many details about the three characters whose stories are presented. But we are given enough to feel sympathy for the girl whose childhood is over, the woman who just wants to be allowed to ride her bike, and the woman who was finally able to buy the things she's always wanted. The English title evokes an expectation that each of these stories represents a transition.

As a woman, it sometimes occurs to me to wonder what that means exactly. This film explores the fact of being a woman and what it means to become one. Was Hoora not a woman before today? We are left to imagine what her life was like before and what brought her to this circumstance, but clearly these details are not so important.

This film is an exploration, not a documentary. It is beautiful and bittersweet (and personally I liked the music) It is not Hollywood by any standard but it is not complicated and even to a Westerner like me it held a lot of truth. It's purpose can be as much to explore one's own views as those of the Iranian filmmaker, and should be viewed as a piece of art rather than a mainstream American movie. Give it a chance, it's only 74 minutes.

On the surface this film tells three simple stories, but its simplicity is deceiving. Each story tells an episode in the life of a woman but as the woman ages the stories become more and more surreal. In so doing Marzieh Meshkini is making a parallel with the life of Iranian women.

Absolutely stunning. On the surface it's a triptych of short stories showing a girl, young wife, and old woman in Iran, but it plays as allegory, and the way it's executed by director Marzieh Meshkini is masterful. She shows great restraint and precision in everything she does, delivering a message with enough ambiguity to make the viewer ponder, and yet clearly showing the constraints of being a woman in a male-dominated society. The middle story in particular was as poetic and profound an expression of the patriarchy as I've ever seen; it was simply breathtaking. This is a film that should be far better known and seen; seek it out.