Good Screenings

EQUALS on film: Divorce Iranian Style

Directed by Kim Longinotto

• Bafta - Flaherty Documentary Award for TV
• Official Selection - Sheffield DocFest
• Official Selection - IDFA Amsterdam
• Official Selection Edinburgh Film Festival

Synopsis

Hilarious, tragic, stirring, this fly-on-the-wall look at several weeks in an Iranian divorce court provides a unique window into the intimate circumstances of Iranian women’s lives.

About the director

Kim Longinotto

Kim Longinotto

Internationally acclaimed director Kim Longinotto is one of the preeminent documentary filmmakers working today, renowned for creating extraordinary human portraits and tackling controversial topics with sensitivity and compassion. Longinotto's films have won international acclaim and dozens of premiere awards at festivals worldwide. Highlights include the Amnesty International DOEN Award at IDFA and Best Doc UK Spotlight at Hot Docs for THE DAY I WILL NEVER FORGET; the Grand Prize for Best Documentary San Francisco Int'l Film Festival and Silver Hugo Award at the Chicago International Film Festival for DIVORCE IRANIAN STYLE; Best Documentary at Films de Femmes, Creteil for DREAM GIRLS; and Outstanding Documentary at the SF Gay and Lesbian Film Festival for SHINJUKU BOYS. Longinotto studied camera and directing at England's National Film School, where she made PRIDE OF PLACE, a critical look at her boarding school, and THEATRE GIRLS, documenting a hostel for homeless women. After graduating from the NFS, she worked as the cameraperson on a variety of documentaries for TV including CROSS AND PASSION, an account of Catholic women in Belfast, and UNDERAGE, a chronicle of unemployed adolescents in Coventry.

• “Focuses on the actions of three extraordinary women who are trying to change their all too ordinary lives as they take to task the old laws of the land. It is revelatory and gripping stuff with Longinotto as an astute observer.”
  - Edinburgh Film Festival

More Information

Following Jamileh, whose husband beats her; Ziba, a 16-year-old trying to divorce her 38-year-old husband; and Maryam, who is desperately fighting to gain custody of her daughters, this deadpan chronicle showcases the strength, ingenuity, and guile with which they confront biased laws, a Kafaka-esque administrative system, and their husbands’ and families’ rage to gain divorces.

With the barest of commentary, acclaimed director Kim Longinotto turns her cameras on the court and lets it tell its own story. Dispelling images of Iran as a country of war, hostages, and “fatwas”, and Iranian women as passive victims of a terrible system, this film is a subtle, fascinating look at women’s lives in a country which is little known to most Americans.

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