Donne senza uomini

Great story, being a Persian, I always heard about the Coup but I could never picture how was it like living at that time, and Shirin Neshat in the best way possible combined it with a love story. Munes wants to be knowledgeable about social and sexual matters (in the film she wants to be a political activist); Faezeh is a traditional Muslim woman who wants a good marriage; Zarin Kolah is a prostitute dreaming of a better future, and Farok-Lagha is a wealthy woman determined to become an influential figure on the political scene. All four end up in a house with a garden in a Tehran suburb, striving for a future that was not granted to them. Gardens are popular in the middle East and especially in Iran, where a garden is a metaphor for paradise.

More of a visual impressionist than storyteller, Shirin Neshat uses the thread of magic-realism to weave together vignettes of five besieged Iranian women. The film beautifully depicts the early fifties era in Iran, during the Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi coup and rebellion against American-British usurpation. Men fare badly in this feature, with maybe one silent gardener playing a benign male role. Neshat has a gifted eye, so check out the extra features for her detail-rich explanations of film nuancing. AfroPixFlix finds 8 fig-forks for this film-festival feature.Women Without Men (Zanan-e bedun-e mardan) 2009; 91 mins Directors: Shirin Neshat, Shoja Azari Writers: Shoja Azari, Shirin Neshat

This was a highly ambitious Iranian film following the lives of several women in 1950s Iran. It may be of interest to American viewers in that the backdrop to the movie is the 1953 coup, where the CIA, in support of an absolute monarch (the Shah), helped overthrow a democratically elected government. That assumes that anyone is still interested in finding out "why the world hates America", I think it's become passé to ruminate on that now. But if you flick CNN on and see the latest wranglings with Iran, well here is where the story started, it's a good idea not to start reading at chapter 56.

The main focus of the film though is the treatment of several Iranian women by the society in which they live, and their retreat to a magical garden without men. It's an awesomely ambitious adaptation of a famous novel of the same name by Shahrnush Parsipur (who has a cameo appearance as the brothel madam). It's not particularly successful, I don't like saying that, but I think even Shirin Neshat, who was present for the screening was not happy with the finished article, which took a very long time to film. She has simply tried to weave too many strands. The most successful story perhaps is of the young prostitute Zarin, who is anorexic and actually played very well by a Hungarian actress, Orsolya Tóth. It's no surprise to me that Neshat actually made a 20 minute short starring the same actress in 2005 called Zarin, which was very well received.

In the Women Without Men, Zarin, who runs away from a brothel is seen furiously rubbing her body raw in some public baths. She speaks not a single word in the whole movie, and that is the most effective condemnation of the society she lives in.

We can see some of the terrible attitudes prevailing then and perhaps now as well about women. Amir Khan (played very ably by Essa Zahir) at one point approaches one of the women (Faezeh played by Pegah Ferydoni) and gives her this line about how women are flowers who blossom and then wither. He then asks her to become his second wife; his first wife, who has withered, will "of course" become her servant. Khan has absolutely no idea of the level of misogyny he's communicating. One of the women is a general's wife, her husband ends an incredibly oafish rant with an order for her to come and eat some melon because he wants her to. In the movie we see a distillation of the unfortunate insensitivities to which a group of Iranian women have been subjected. It's important to note that it would be an overreaction to condemn Iranian male society en masse.

It's a very beautiful movie, the garden of the villa that the general's wife sets herself up in after a very scandalous separation, is really very magical and shot wondrously. I was worried that the movie was getting a bit lost in it's quest for aesthetic perfection, and thusly becomes almost soporific. The stories of the different women became a bit cacophonic, there was no unison message. It's got to be pretty unbalanced as well, men are almost uniformly comedy sketch buffoons, the women martyrs.

As a cinematic experience that is both gripping and mesmerizing it deserves a 10 out of 10. But I couldn't care less about the backdrop of the coup d'état, that provided some, but not much, narrative structure.

Somewhere between an audiovisual poem, a feminist tale, and a historical drama, it has taken on too much at once.

To dissect what is exactly wrong with the narrative would be difficult. There are elements of the story that work well: the girls' story before they come to the house, women's place in society, the love stories that develop. If these aspects would have gotten all the attention and focus, it would have been more than enough for me to chew on.

Still I love this film. There is an etherial atmosphere throughout the film that kept my eyes fixed on the screen. Visually the film is stunning, its desaturated look is fitting as a metaphor for the oppression both the country and the women face.

How you approach this film will surely shape your experience. It is a poetic film, with more than a dash of magical realism. That said it does not shy away from the political, that thread is important of course, it is just not what I believe the director and her creative partner wished to accentuate.

I've been on a bit of a Shirin Neshat addiction as of late, and I strongly recommend tracking down her "Turbulent" split-screen split-audio art installation. That is on the web, although I wish I could have experienced it (and her other works too, but that one foremost) in person.

"Women Without Men" is based on a book by an author who was imprisoned in Iran; and now like Shirin, that author is estranged from if not in exact exile from her beloved motherland. This movie is infused with a sense of nostalgia, a longing for a beautiful time in Iran, and in particular from Shirin's youth. The metaphoric/memory garden she has spoken of in other arenas.

Shirin' acute photographic sense is definitely employed in some of the beautiful shots specifically of the mist-drenched garden offering refuge to three of the women. The lighting through-out the film feels at times like an extra actor on screen. The sound as well.

I could say more, but I full-heartedly recommend seeing this movie. For other critical reviewers, enjoy the interview with Shirin and Shoja that accompanies the DVD. That interview is currently at the Walker Art web site. It is illuminating and she is so elegant in many ways. Shoja addresses topics succinctly as well, notably the male roles in the move. It is quite a nice guide to splendid non-polemic poetic experience that captures much of the art, beauty and music of an Iran that hopefully blooms again.

I would be curious to ask Shirin, even if CIA-interference and subsequent religio-political turmoil had not marred her beloved Motherland, would she still not sense a separation from the garden/country of her youth.

Perhaps too hard to speculate, as her identity and her artistic spirit are so interwoven with her own dislocation and displacement. Maybe no one can truly go home again, but for Shirin and the Iran she shares with us all, that is a great sorrow.