Roozi ke zan shodam / The Day I Became a Woman

Roozi ke zan shodam / The Day I Became a Woman. Azizeh Sedighi as Hoora.

Roozi ke zan shodam / The Day I Became a Woman. Shabnam Tolouei as Ahoo.

روزی که زن شدم / Dagen då jag blev en kvinna.
Director: Marzieh Meshkini
Country: Iran
Year: 2000
Duration: 1.18
Language: Farsi / subtitles in English on print
Print source: Makhmalbaf Film House, 35 mm
Category: Marzieh Meshkini
    Loc: Kish Island, Iran.
    In the presence of Marzieh Meshkini hosted by Timo Malmi.
    Viewed at Midnight Sun Film Festival (MSFF), The Big Top, Sodankylä, 13 June 2019

MSFF: "Directed and co-written by Marzieh Meshkini together with her husband Mohsen Makhmalbaf, The Day I Became a Woman (2000) is a drama consisting of the stories and situations of three women of different ages in Iran. A collective theme is the search for personal identity in a socially unjust society."

"In the first story of the film (described as Fellinesque), a grandmother tells her nine year old granddaughter Havva that from now one there will be certain obligations in life: Havva can no longer play with her best friend because he is a boy, and she must also start wearing a women’s garment called chador outside the home. The policy will take effect at noon. From a child’s perspective, the whole thing is very absurd. In the second story, Ahoo participates in a women’s bicycle race. Her husband rides a horse, trying to make Ahoo quit the race by threatening her with divorce. When Ahoo decides to continue, the husband brings a mullah who grants them divorce."

"The protagonist of the third story, Houra, is a widow who has just inherited some property. She decides to buy everything that she has always wanted but has been unable to get while married. In the last scene, these three stories merge. The film has received awards for example at the film festivals of Venice, Toronto and Chicago." (Mia Öhman, MSFF)

AA: The Day I Became a Woman is a passionate film based on strong poetically charged colours, imagery, and music.

It starts with an image of a black cloth caught in the wind. The composition of the images is stark and assured. There is a sensual touch in the account of the material world and the seaside landscape of the Kish island off the Persian Gulf. Gorgeous clothes shine in bright full colour.

"You are a woman today at noon", the 9-year-old Hava learns one day. She is now told to cover herself and no longer play with boys. She has only one hour of freedom left. Also her best friend, Hassan, a black boy, is locked up. Their friendship continues via a lollipop shared through window bars. Meanwhile the shadow of Hava's stick keeps getting shorter. When there is no shadow left it's noon, and Hava's freedom ends.

In the second story of this triptych Ahoo indulges in the forbidden activity of cycling. During the bicycle ride her husband commits divorce on horseback.

In the third story the old lady Hoora receives an inheritance and lavishes everything on consumer goods such as clothes, a refrigerator and a cooker. She has become free at last, and this is her way to express it.

Marzieh Meshkini has an original voice as a film poet. I keep thinking about affinities with the Ukrainian poetic school of Dovjenko, Paradjanov, and Ilyenko. But also about the comic colour shorts of Pasolini such as La Terra vista dalla Luna. Not forgetting the flights of fancy of Varda. Nor the satire of the consumer society by Tahslin, Lewis, and Godard. I don't think she has been influenced by any of them. She is inventing poetic, imagist cinema in her own way. There is no surface affinity with Farrokhzad, but the talent of imagism is common to both.

The black cloth caught in the wind is Hava's scarf used by the boys as a sail in their self-made boat. It is being caught in the wind of freedom.

The beautiful photochemical print looks like it has been struck from the camera negative.

In the Q & A Marzieh Meshkini told us that the three characters of her triptych can be interpreted as the three ages of one person.


THE DAY I BECAME A WOMAN
Ohjaaja: Marzieh Meshkini
Maa: Iran
Vuosi: 2000
Kesto: 1.18
Kielet: persia / tekstitys englanniksi
Alkup. nimi: Roozi ke zan shodam
Kategoria: 35 mm, Marzieh Meshkini

Marzieh Meshkinin ohjaama ja yhdessä miehensä Mohsen Makhmalbafin kanssa kirjoittama draama The Day I Became a Woman (2000) käsittää kolme eri tarinaa kolmen eri-ikäisen naisen tilanteesta Iranissa. Kokoavana teemana on oman identiteetin etsiminen sosiaalisesti epäoikeudenmukaisessa yhteiskunnassa.

Felliniläiseksi luonnehditun elokuvan ensimmäisessä tarinassa isoäiti kertoo Havva-tytölle yhdeksäntenä syntymäpäivänä, että tästä eteenpäin elämässä on tiettyjä velvollisuuksia: Havva ei enää saa leikkiä parhaan kaverinsa kanssa, koska tämä on poika, ja hänen pitää alkaa käyttää kodin ulkopuolella naisen vaatetta chadoria. Käytäntö astuu voimaan keskipäivällä. Lapsen näkökulmasta asia on täysin absurdi. Toisessa tarinassa Ahoo osallistuu naisten pyöräkilpailuun. Hänen miehensä yrittää saada Ahoon keskeyttämään kilpailun hevosen selässä ratsastaen, ja uhkaa avioerolla. Kun Ahoo päättää jatkaa, mies tuo paikalle mullahin joka myöntää avioeron.

Kolmannen tarinan Houra on vanhempi leski, joka on juuri perinyt omaisuutta. Hän päättää ostaa kaiken sen tavaran mitä on halunnut mutta ei ole saanut ollessaan naimisissa. Viimeisessä kohtauksessa nämä kolme tarinaa yhdistyvät. Elokuva on palkittu mm. Venetsian, Toronton ja Chicagon elokuvajuhlilla. (MÖ)