This is probably my favorite film that no one knows about. It represents a vision so precise and axiomatic, and it's incredible that anyone could have created anything so ethereal and powerful from something so simple and ordinary. Invented by Marziyeh Meshkini, this triptych of parabolic short stories detail gender inequality in an increasingly modern Iran. There is absolutely no pretense to this film. There is no attempt to make a "movie". Objective, to the point of vérité, Meshkini's camera simply reveals what happens without manipulation or ornamentation. Counterpoint to this attempt at realism is the fact The Day I Became a Woman works entirely with metaphors, and this contradiction is what fuels its sense of incorporeality. Aside from its use of metaphors, the film derives such strength from the relation between its images. These two factors come together perhaps strongest in the second act. Hundreds of women, covered in black burkas, in stark contrast to the bleak wasteland of desert terrain and enveloped by the coastline, speed along on bicycles with the desperation of insects escaping fire. The idea is that they are escaping tradition and Iran's oppressive nature towards women. Men on horses chase one of the women who refuses to return to her husband. The relationship between the horses and the bicycles are intercut, showing tradition in opposition to modern progress. The other two parables are equally effective and show women of different ages (one younger and one much older) who have their own moments of independence and agency. I see a lot of Varda and Fellini in her work, and it's clear that Meshkini could have only created such an effective piece of cinema because she truly knows and loves the art form.
Review of The Day I Became a Woman
