Women Without Men

"In images of arresting purity and composure, expatriate Iranian photographer and video artist Shirin Neshat elaborates a haunting sense of women’s lives in Iran in 1953, when a British- and American-backed coup handed power to the Shah and eliminated the possibility of secular democracy in Iran for decades to come. Adapted from a novel by Iranian author Shahrnush Parsipur that is banned in Iran, the film weaves together the stories of several women from different levels of society whose fates have been variously shaped by their faith.

"The two women with the greatest class difference – the wealthy, unhappy wife of a general, and a prostitute tormented by visions of faceless men – are especially compelling figures, but this episodic film affords us haunting insights into many worlds. Neshat injects heightened social realism with fantasy, bringing her characters together in a luscious garden, where they have parties, sing and can talk freely about any subject they like. She has dedicated her poignant contemplation of freedom denied to the demonstrators who took to the streets in Tehran in 2009." (New Zealand International Film Festival 2010)

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