We went to a screening of Shirin Neshat's Women Without Men at the CUNY Graduate Center last night. After the film Neshat discussed her adaptation with Shahrnush Parsipur, the author of the original book. When it was first published in 1990, Parsipur was arrested and imprisoned for writing about Iranian women in a non-traditional way. It's a magic realist novella, and the film is almost more an extended piece of video art—incredibly beautiful and effective ways of dealing with difficult political issues. You can stream the entire film for four dollars. It's really worth watching. Keep it in mind for your next movie night!
