Stellar Acting, Gorgeous Composition in Women Without Men

Details

Women Without Men
Directed by Shirin Neshat
IndiePix
Opens May 14
Quad Cinema and Lincoln Plaza

Related Content

• Steve McQueen Rides a Dead Horse at Marian Goodman
  February 2, 2010
• Yoko cabs hit the streets in January
  December 27, 2009
• Dorothy Iannone at the New Museum; Cheim & Reid's 'The Female Gaze: Women Look at Women'
  August 18, 2009
• Price on Request
  October 31, 2006
• Unraveled Tapestry
  February 13, 2007

More About

• Shirin Neshat
• Shoja Azari
• Shabnam Toloui
• Pegah Ferydoni
• Arts, Entertainment, and Media

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Events Newsletter: What's happening in town? From underground club nights to the biggest outdoor festivals, our top picks for the week's best events will always keep you in on the action.

Privacy Policy Cancel Continue

Adapted from Shahrnoush Parsipour's novel of the same name, Women Without Men opens with an act of suicide and the voiceover, "And I thought the only freedom from pain is to be free from the world." Directed by Iranian artist Shirin Neshat, the film follows the interwoven, tragic paths of four women in Iran during the summer of 1953, when political upheaval stirred by Western power plays resulted in the fall of democracy and the fanning of religious fundamentalism. Fledgling political activist Munis (Shabnam Toloui), whose suicide opens the film, lives with a brother who browbeats her about her failure to conform to religious dictates; bone-thin, dead-eyed Zarin (Orsolya Tóth) works in a brothel for a brutal madam before running away; the devout Faezeh (Pegah Ferydoni) dreams of nothing but marriage until an act of violence forces her to re-evaluate her life; and unhappily married Fakhri (Arita Shahrzad) flees from her marriage to a boorish army officer after a past love—a cultured man—returns to her life. With a screenplay by Neshat and Shoja Azari, the film's dialogue is often didactic, but that weakness is forgiven in the face of stellar acting from the ensemble and gorgeously composed and shot images, from the carefully draped bodies in a bathhouse to the desolate Zarin's trek down an isolated road as the fabric she's draped in flaps around her body.