Summary: | Duration: 01:20:00
Hilarious, tragic, stirring, this fly-on-the-wall look at several weeks in an Iranian divorce court provides a unique window into the intimate circumstances of Iranian women’s lives. Following Jamileh, whose husband beats her; Ziba, a 16 year old trying to divorce her 38 year old husband; and Maryam, who is desperately fighting to gain custody of her daughters, this deadpan chronicle showcases the strength, ingenuity, and guile with which they confront biased laws, a Kafkaesque administrative system, and their husbands’ and families’ rage, to win their divorces. Longinotto and her Iranian co-director Ziba Mir-Hosseini spend several weeks following the complainants in and outside of court as they go to great lengths to convince the patient judge to free them. Dispelling images of Iran as a country of war, hostages, and “fatwas”, and Iranian women as passive victims of a terrible system, this film is a subtle, fascinating look at women’s lives in Iran.
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