Divorce Iranian Style
Director: Kim Longinotto
Running Time : 80 mins
English Subtitled 1998

Post Screening Discussion with Director

The film moves away from portraying Iran as a country of war, hostages and Fatwas, and concentrates instead on ordinary women who come to the family law courts in Central Tehran to try and transform their lives.

The three main characters are Jamileh who punishes her husband for beating her, Ziba, a sixteen year old girl who is trying to get a divorce from her, 38 year old husband, and Maryam who is fighting for the custody of her daughters.

Kim Longinotto, a graduate of the National Film and Television School, has achieved international recognition for her award winning films and is unmistakably recognisable as a distinctive individual voice: “I want to make films which create a situation where the audience gets close to another individual, often from a completely different background, and feel a shock of understanding… I like films which subvert and make fun of established power”.

Selected Filmography: The Good Wife of Tokyo (1992); Dream girls (1993); Shinjuku Boys (1995); Rock Wives (1996); Mile Leigh (997) Rob and Chris (1999) Gaea Girls (2000) The Day I Will Never Forget (2002) winner of the prestigious Joris Ivens Competition at the International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam.

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