Leila is a kind-hearted and loving woman whose marriage to Reza starts off happily. But when she learns that she is infertile, her life changes rapidly. Devastated by the news, Leila finds herself under growing pressure from Reza’s mother to let him take a second wife to bear his children, and what follows is a profound psychological study of a woman swept away on a complex emotional journey. Led by two wonderful performances by Leila Hatami (Leila) and Jamileh Sheikhi as Reza’s manipulative mother, this is a powerful and thought-provoking drama that doesn’t disappoint.
Tag: 1990s
Dariush Mehrjui’s Hamoun is a psychological comedy/drama about a bumbling Iranian intellectual, Hamid Hamoun. Trying and failing to complete a philosophical tract on love, Hamoun cannot seem to convince his wife Mashid, who is a successful artist, to love him either. Hamoun’s refusal to accept reality, or grant Mashid a divorce, is both character study and metaphor for a condition of modern urban life in Iran.
While on a train, a teenage boy thinks about his life and the flamboyant aunt whose friendship acted as an emotional shield from his troubled family. This film evokes the haunting quality of memory while creating a heartfelt portrait of a boy’s life in a rural 1940s Southern town.
Shot in his butcher shop by a rival clan during the Mafia wars of 1988, the Palermo Mobster Tano Guarrasi is mourned by his wife, four unmarried sisters and his daughter. But in truth, his death represents a kind of liberation for the women.
The plot concerns a driven career woman returning to Australia from New York to make her mark in the world of fashion design. Tessa returns home to Melbourne to establish her own label while battling her devious younger sister, the mob, and a slew of other enemies including an alcoholic competitor, a stalker, drug dealers, jealous wives, corrupt police, and militant unions. Tessa also juggles love affairs with a married Australian businessman who may be a gangster, an American photographer, and a hot-tempered Irish thug, in between surviving various attempts on her life and investigating the “accidental” death of her father.
A young woman attending a conference in Tangier with her husband is kidnapped and raped, but rebuilds her relationship with her husband on a trip to the south of Morocco.
Tired of being mistreated by their husbands, Ema, Clotilde, and Chayo leave their families and begin an adventure that takes them to a cavernous cabaret in Guadalajara, a love affair with a hot-blooded young drug dealer, and a popular, well-decorated Mexican restaurant in downtown L.A. Along the way, the three women find their respective self-esteem and their true reasons for living.
White-collar worker Yamashita finds out that his wife has a lover visiting her when he’s away, suddenly returns home and kills her. After eight years in prison, he returns to live in a small village, opens a barber shop (he was trained as a barber in prison) and talks almost to no-one except for the eel he “befriended” in prison. One day he finds the unconscious body of Keiko, who attempted suicide and reminds him of his wife. She starts to work at his shop, but he doesn’t let her become close to him.
