The Day I Became a Woman

An allegory of 'the three ages of woman' set on the free trade island of Kish. Part one: a girl reaches her ninth birthday, the age she officially becomes a woman; but she doesn't want to wear a chador or stop playing with the boy next door. Part two: a young woman participates in a cycle race with other women, deaf to demands from her husband and other men that she stop disporting in public. Part three: an elderly woman on a shopping spree, buys herself all the mod cons she always wanted and sets them up in an imaginary home on the beach. The overall escalation into fantasy points up the limitations of the allegories: this offers a very arm's length feminist protest, with too much attention to surreal visuals. Still, it announces Meshkini (Mohsen's wife, Samira's stepmother/aunt) as another asset for Makhmalbaf Film House, the family's production company.