Women According to Men

“This well-researched documentary, with over 120 clips from archival films shot almost exclusively by male film-makers, portrays the domestic and social position of Iranian women from 1932 to the 1979 revolution. The patriarchal family, love and deception, unwanted pregnancies and abortions, arranged marriages and polygamy form the background to the movie’s central themes of education, emancipation and the salvation of Iranian women, torn between tradition and modernity.”

In this well-researched documentary, Saeed Nouri displays a beautiful array of sequences from pre-revolutionary films all shot by men gazing at women. It’s a peephole to the patriarchal composition of Iranian cinema. The audience is invited to a feast to the eyes to savor 120 remastered film clips of classical and commercial Iranian films that pointed their cameras at women’s issues such as love, loss, gender equity, polygamous relationship, abortion, unwanted children, and female social involvement. Women According to Men is a must-see documentary for those who want to survey the pre-revolutionary Iranian films and their gender dynamics.