Director/Screenplay Rakhshan BANI-ETEMAD; Producers Ali-Reza RAISSIAN, Jahangir KOSARI; Dir. Photography Hossein JAFARIAN; Sound Parviz ABNAR; Editors Mostafa KHERGHEHPOOSH, Masumeh SHAHNAZARI; Cast Minoo FARSHCHI, Mani KASRAIAN, Golab ADINEH

Frough Kia (Farshchi) is at a turning point in her life: she is a successful documentary filmmaker and divorced mother in her early 40s, but her son Mani (Kasraian), with whom she has an affectionate (if stormy) relationship, resents the presence of another man in her life. Interestingly, we are never shown this man, who communicates his love and caring through telephone conversations and letters. In her job, as Frough interviews different women for a film on "the exemplary mother," she wonders where she herself stands among them, as a divorced woman raising a son and in love with a new man.

This latest feature from Bani-Etemad, who up until now has been primarily a documentarist herself, at first recalls some of the films of Chantal Akerman in its cool depiction of repetitive daily tasks such as driving, telephoning and setting the table. But it gradually engages with the outside world by critiquing police treatment of imprisoned women and fun-loving youth and questioning Islamic Iran’s codes for "single" women.

The fact that we never see Frough’s new lover emphasizes her own central role in determining her place in family and society. Thus THE MAY LADY is a strong and heartfelt feminist plea for an Iranian woman’s self-determination in the context of a rigid, patriarchial society.

—Frako Loden

Presented with Persian Center