"Two Women" was screened before 1,500 moviegoers in a sold out house at the 4th Annual Roger Ebert Overlooked Film Festival in April 2002 at the Virginia Theatre in Champaign, Illinois.
Writer/Director Tahmineh Milani flew from Iran to be Roger Ebert's guest at the film festival showing of her most outstanding movie.
Following the showing T. Milani received a standing ovation as Roger Ebert escorted her on stage, where she answered questions about her life and the making of this true life Iranian story.
She explained about the customs of the Iranian people pertaining to the freedom of Iranian women in that country. This movie was a true story of one of T. Milani's friend's life. Ms. Milani stated that currently about 50 percent of her country's male population believes that way.
There were two wonderful female stars in the film. Niki Karimi played Fereshteh and Marila Zare'i played the role of her friend, Roya. These two female Iranian actors showed superb acting ability and dedication to their acting craft. This movie was, by far, so different than other formula movies cranked out by the movie industry. While other movies may be hard to remember years later, this film will remain on the moviegoer's mind for time to come. It was that powerful and intense.
The movie was spoken in Farsi speech (with English subtitles) but that did not diminish from the understanding of the film. One gets absorbed into the film and easily follows the story line.
A crazed maniac character, Hassan, played by Mohammad Reza Forutan was menacing, scary, and believable. You would not want Hassan stalking you as he stalked Fereshteh. He is a fine and scary actor!
Atila Pesiani played Ahmad, Fereshteh's arranged marriage husband. Ahmad is "traditional" and jealous of Fereshteh trying to have a personal life of enrichment. Although a "good man" in his heart, he follows the old Iranian customs whereby a women cannot do anything in public by herself and must have a male family member with her wherever she goes.
Reza Khandan played Fereshteh's traditional father who arranges his daughter's marriage to an older man. Fereshteh's father displays a false pride and shame of everything that his daughter does.
The enlightenment comes to the audience when we learn that traditional Iranian men seem to be ashamed and feel dishonor no matter what their female children do. Always "worrying" what the neighbors will "think" Fereshteh's father keeps her in a virtual prison of the home until he marries her off to Ahmad who, in turn, also keeps Fereshteh homebound until her sanity becomes jeopardized in the end.
This is a great film. And, Director Milani is to be praised in spite of the political and judicial liability hanging over her for making this film. Tahmineh Milani has given the world a frank and realistic look into the way women are treated in Iran.
This magnificent foreign film is an undeniable 10! It is available on VCR and DVD. Check it out, truly!
