Women’s Prison

Women’s Prison
Studio: First Run Features
WorkNameSort: Women’s Prison
If you could please put your puerile mind on hold for a second, this is not the sort of women-in-prison movie that American audiences have become inured to thanks to the likes of Reform School Girls and Women in Cages. Crafted as a metaphorical statement on women’s life in post-revolutionary Iran, Manijeh Hekmat’s film is as dark as it is illuminating. Occasionally Women’s Prison gets a bit blunt with its points ‘ you definitely know by the end that Islamic society is not the most female-friendly ‘ but the humane way that Hekmat presents the characters more than makes up for it. She posits the interactions between the ‘oppressedâ?� (convicted murderer Mitra, who killed an abusive male relative) and ‘oppressorâ?� (warden Tahereh) as natural and believable, which allows them to function as far more than simple symbolic representations.

This article appears in Jan 3-9, 2007.