Do zan

Two Women (1999), written and directed by Tahmineh Milani, is an Iranian film shown as part of the Alan Lutkus International Film Series at SUNY Geneseo. (Persian title "Do zan.")

This movie follows the lives of two women whom we first encounter when one of them calls the other because of a family crisis.

The film then flashes back to the friendship of the women during their university days. Niki Karimi plays Fereshteh, a brilliant student. Marila Zare'i is cast as Roya, an intelligent woman, but no intellectual match for Fereshteh.

As fate would have it, Roya achieves relative independence in her marriage and professional life in Teheran. Fereshteh is trapped in a stultifying existence in a rural area.

Anyone who has read "Reading Lolita in Teheran" knows about the almost unbelievable repression of women in present-day Iran. This film personalizes that experience, by showing us a bright, amiable, attractive woman crushed by the weight of a society that is totally dominated by men.

This movie is grim and disturbing. However, it's well acted, and portrays what I believe to be the reality of the status of women in a fundamentalist culture.

The film verges on old-fashioned melodrama at some points, especially near the end, but the acting is solid and, overall, this is a film worth seeking out and seeing.

(The Alan Lutkus International Film Series at SUNY Geneseo is presented by the Office of the Provost, several academic departments, and the IFS Committee.)