Divorce Iranian Style (1998)

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

Review: This documentary will make you want to protest for these women wanting to get a divorce. Throughout the film, we see that men have so much power over woman in an Iranian divorce. The women have to defend themselves, give everything they have to the judges. In common cases, the woman give up their "wedding gifts", a some of money gifted to the wives in which many who file for divorce never get, just so they can have their divorce. This documentary focus on several different woman wanting a divorce but this is just a few out of the many. From this documentary I learned that it takes so much time and energy for a woman in Iran wanting a divorce. Also, we see what it is like for woman outside the courts, dress code is shown to be very important. Women are told to take of their makeup because there's too much on. My heart goes out to these judges and the staff who have to sit through and listen to each and every couple that come to the court demanding a divorce. My heart also goes out to the couples wanting a divorce, especially the women because they clearly treated unfairly compared to men. I have to give this documentary 10 stars for showing me what a divorce in Iran is like and how hectic and stressful each situation is with the different arguments involved in different couples.

First, I have to say that if I got to see a large number of documentaries out of Iran I might not have rated this as a 10. It's really hard to say, since I DON'T get to see many others.I found this documentary to be extremely educational and informative and SURPRISING. All my life when I heard about countries where women are forced to wear the long robes and do not have equal rights I assumed that the women in such countries were meek and slavish in personality as well. I was WRONG about that...! I was shocked, bewildered and delighted to see how incredibly FEISTY these women were! Although I disagree vehemently with the religious and political laws that give women less than equal rights, I was given a sense of new hope when I saw that even without the rights I consider they should have these women are NOT without spirit. Sometimes their personalities were downright hilarious to me -- causing me to laugh in shocked surprise! I think this film made me realize perhaps for the first time in my life that just because religions or cultures or governments may try to restrain and train the human spirit, the human spirit yet still bubbles out. I found myself feeling a great fondness for Iranian women. Whereas before seeing this film I felt we would simply not have enough in common to enjoy so much as a dinner together, now I feel certain I would adore to have them over to my house for a dinner party (though I'd need translators to come along as well).Someone told me once that if it is real art you are changed by it. This film changed me. It's its own unexpected way it is true art!

I was shocked to see that the authorities who make up these uncivilized rules against women allow filming of these proceedings. It was a relieve though to see some of these women are fighting the system despite the road blocks they face constantly. You can easily see the sense of victory on the face of the woman who came to the court with her two boys, complaining about her husband not coming home and not providing her financial support, once the judge mediated and made the husband obey his wife's conditions. A very good documentary about what goes on behind the closed doors of Iranian divorce courtrooms.

The film is worth seeing. For someone who is not familiar with the Middle- East will enjoy watching this program, but will be bewildered in it's content. My rating for the film is 3