Shirin Neshat’s “Women without Men,” a riveting tale of five women living the period leading up to Iran’s Green Revolution was screened for the first time in New York at the Quad last night. The artist/filmmaker was present to introduce the film and answer audience questions. It seemed uncanny how such a petite woman could be so full of power and ability to move audiences. Neshat emphasizes the need for every individual to experience unconditional freedom, both psychological and physical. Denying a person this base need is so unbearable it kills the conscious being. In her film, this happens both metaphorically and literally. The cinematographic use of hazy effects gives the film its evermore poetic element; the camera floats across scenes, across the orchards, across the lives of five Iranian women struggling to save themselves from mental bondage. Neshat uses the motion picture in such a way as to remind us that the medium is still an artistic form and an enthralling narrative can be told with the utmost aesthetic integrity. 

Simmy Swinder