WOMEN WITHOUT MEN
Germany, 2009, 99 minutes, Colour.
Pegah Ferydoni, Areta Shahrzad, Shabnam Tolouei, Orsi Toth.
Directed by Shirin Neshat.
This film is based on a famous novel by Shahrnush Parsipur (who also appears in the film as the madam at the brothel). The film is set in 1950s Iran, especially at the time of a coup in 1953 where the CIA was in support of the shah and overthrew a democratically elected government with the assistance of the British government. This alone indicates the continuing hostility of Iran towards the United States and Britain.
The film is a blend of realism and magic realism, a serious story with fantasy touches. The focus is on several women and their relationship with men. From the title, it is evident that the men are presented in a very bad light. A promiscuous general wants to dismiss his wife. Men go to the brothel. A seemingly good man wants one of the women as a second wife but is in fact turning her into his servant.
The two central characters are a prostitute who runs away from the brothel and is sheltered by the general’s wife. There are other women who join the general’s wife and the prostitute at her country home, building up strength, physical and moral as well as the courage to make a stand against the authorities and the authoritarian men.
The director had made a short film with the leading lady but is better known as a photographer. This is her first feature film and she won the best director at the Venice Film Festival in 2009.
1.The first feature film of the director, her work as a visual artist, photographer, short film maker? Bringing these talents together in a feature film?
2.The title, its ironies, the history of Iran, comparisons with the present, the dedication to all those who have campaigned from the beginning of the 20th century to 2009?
3.Morocco standing in for Iran, Tehran? The buildings, homes and streets, the marketplaces and the squares? The brothel? The countryside, the mansion? The musical score, the Iranian songs?
4.The structure, the focus on the four women, the interconnected stories?
5.The framework, the suicide of Munis? Her being found dead, buried? Her coming to life again – hope or not? The final image of the suicide? The message that a woman has to kill herself so that she can be free to move in a men’s world, a political world?
6.The status of women, the 1950s, the era of the shah, the influence of the West, fashions, styles? Yet women dominated, arranged marriages, being used? Seen as inferior? The perspective of the writer-director, her exile from Iran? The work of the author of the novel – and its being banned in Iran?
7.Munis’s story, on the building, the fall, her brother and his wanting to arrange her marriage, the suitor coming? The arguments between the two? Faezeh and her friendship, traditionally dressed, her views? Coming to visit Munis? The fall, burying her? Munis rising? Munis’s love of the radio, politics, her brother turning it off? Issues for democracy, the communists, her friendship with the protestor, her going on protests, the killing and her reaction against it? Her dying again?
8.The political background, the shah, the prime minister and his government, the British and the blockade of the ship, the search for oil? The US complicit? The ousting of the prime minister? The coup d'etat, the general? The anticommunism? The fierce nationalism and demonstrations? The rich and their loyalty to the shah? The return of the shah?
9.Faezeh, prim, her friendship with Munis, wanting to marry Munis’s brother? Her going to get the magic charm, burying it in the garden, hearing Munis, raising Munis to life? The horror of her rape? Her lament, Munis supporting her, taking her to the house in the country? The meeting with Fahkri and her looking after her? The meeting with Zarin? Her life, changing, awareness of herself, her body, sexuality? Munis’s brother and his visiting, proposing, her seeing that he would use her as a servant when he tired of her? Her sadness and coming back to the city?
10.Zarin, young, in the brothel, the range of clients, her weariness, obedient to the madam, the man without a mouth? Her fleeing, the violent scrubbing of her body to cleanse herself in the baths, wandering, seeing the water flowing, walking out of the city, in the pool, being saved and revived? Her life, fading away, her death?
11.Fahkri, her marriage to her husband, his military honour, Avas coming back from the West, the former friendship? Her husband and his insulting Avas? The background of the army, the celebration of the military? Avas and his comment about Ava Gardner? Fahkri and her spurning her husband, his physical and verbal abuse, her walking out on the marriage, buying the orchard, setting it up, finding Zarin and letting her live there, helping Faezeh? Working in the garden? A cultured woman, providing the party, the rich coming, the singing of the songs, her own singing? The arrival of the army, suspicions, helping them to eat? The end and her contemplating what had happened?
12.The army, the police, the brutal methods, the scenes of the demonstrations, the police treatment? The shah, leaving the country, returning? The coups against the prime minister, his being ousted? The British and American influence? The role of the student protest?
13.The passing of fifty years, the establishing of the Islamic Republic of Iran, its 21st century culture? The treatment of women? Censorship? The possibility of protest or not?
