KALA

The day I became a woman is a 2004 Iranian film directed by Marzieh  Meshkini. It is a collection of three poignant tales or dramas which tells the life of contemporary Iranian women in a metaphoric language.          

The film depicts the life and struggles of women in the three major stages of life such as: childhood, adulthood, and old age. It is believed in many cultures that women do not deserve freedom or independence as they need to be protected by men.

The first story is about the friendship between a girl who has just turned a woman according to the Islamic law. She had to convince her parents to hangout with her friend who is a boy, on her last day of free life as a girl. She has to behave like a woman and cover her hair according to the law. Even though she relishes her last day of freedom, the shadow of the suffering yet to come haunts her. She carries a stick with her in order to detect the time to reach back home according to the law. 

The second story is about the struggles of a married woman who is participating in a cycle race along with many other women along a seashore. Men on horseback from her family threatens her to give up the race and to live like a typical wife as the religions recommends. She refuses to listen to her angry husband, father and brothers. At the end, she is forcefully stopped by the masculinity in order to bring back her to normal life according to the law and culture. We can see that she gives up the ride after a long pursuit.

The third story is about an elderly woman who has reached the city to enjoy the pleasures of modernity. She hires a boy from the airport to take her to buy all the home appliances and to carry them to a seashore to create a makeshift home. It is found that all the pleasures of life comes to her only at the last moment of her life and she is unable to carry them to the next world, perhaps the life after death. 

We find the child Havva, the protagonist of the first story, watching the old lady sailing in a makeshift boat to the horizon. It may be a metaphoric expression of the upcoming life of any typical Iranian woman.

This is a generally slow film with very less movement as it tells the story of the very life and feelings of people. I hope you will enjoy watching it.

Love.

Joseph Kala