The Day I Became a Woman

The debut feature by Marziyeh Meshkini, working from a script by her husband Mohsen Makhmalbaf, is a remarkable combination of stark realism and poetic fantasy, a startlingly moving fable about the place of women in fundamentalist Islamic society. Presented as a triptych, with each segment representing a life stage, the opening sequence dramatizes the rite of passage from childhood to supposed maturity on a girl's ninth birthday, when she must cease playing with boys and begin wearing the chador. The second depicts a bicycle race along the coast, in which a chador-clad woman continues to peddle furiously even though her husband, pursuing on horseback, orders her to stop or face divorce (she's condemned by a mullah, her clan, and her brothers, who destroy the bike). In the final episode, an elderly widow spends an inheritance lavishly buying up all the consumer goods she's been denied all her life. Embracing, in a surrealist fashion, the experiences of a female subjected to ancient custom and religious law from birth to old age, The Day I Became a Woman offers a profoundly sad statement about how a young girl's personality can be crushed and her talents wasted by a nurture-less system. But it's not a dry treatise, rather the film is an affecting drama filled with glowing performances, striking compositions, and marvelous bursts of humor. A lovely, touching, and significant work, this is highly recommended. [Note: DVD extras include audio commentary by film scholar Richard Peña, a photo gallery, weblinks, a critical essay by acclaimed author Shirin Neshat, and trailers. Bottom line: a solid extras package for an excellent, timely film.] (F. Swietek)