25.09.25, 20:30, The Day I Became a Woman (2000)

Three miniatures, three stages of life, three ways of being a woman—or not being allowed to be one. Hawa turns nine and is told that she is now a woman. From now on, she must cover her hair and can no longer play with boys. Ahoo, a young bride, takes part in a cycling race against her husband's will, with her family hot on her heels. A third story, that of Houra, tells the tale of an old lady who finally has enough money to buy everything that has been out of reach her whole life, and who does just that.

In her first feature film, Iranian director Marzieh Meshkini dissects the patriarchal straitjacket imposed on women. With a careful balance between allegory and observation, each part of the triptych zooms in on a different stage of womanhood, each characterised by control, oppression or resistance. The Day I Became a Woman is a key film in contemporary Iranian cinema, with a distinctly female perspective that has rarely been portrayed so radically and tenderly.