Shirin Neshat’s dreamlike Iranian social drama draws us in with scrumptious imagery to the sad, interlocking stories of four women who are all too with men, controlling the women’s lives in turbulent Tehran, circa 1953. Visual artist Neshat dabbles a little too heavily in magical realism, and the four females’ hardships verge on melodrama, but there are moments of quiet poetry and startling beauty alongside the political strife. Maybe it’s too small a package for so many threads. Neshat directed and wrote the screenplay with Shoja Azari, adapting Shahrnush Parsipur’s novel of the same name. Amazing digital lighting and camera work by Martin Gschlacht and a penetrating music score by Ryuichi Sakamoto add to the spell (95 min.).
By
Kelly Vance