General Information

Author/Creator

Longinotto, Kim, director.

Language

Persian.

Subtitles

English

Published

United Kingdom, 1998.

Physical Description

DVD-ROM (80 min.)

Digital ver. identifier

HU_OSA_00002736

Contents/Summary

Summary

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.

Subjects

Genre

Documentary films

Bibliographic Information

Note

Duration: 01:20:00

Holdings

Item Type	Current Location	Call Number	Status	Shelving Location	Public Note
DVD-ROM	OSA Film Library	FL Record 1054	Available	-	-
Digital film	OSA Film Library	FL Record 1054 (HU_OSA_00002736.mp4)	Available		Access Copy, MP4 format