Tag Archives: violence against women

“The Salesman” (Asghar Farhadi, Iran 2016)

The Salesman
Victim of an intruder, a woman not only suffers a psychological trauma, but has also to deal with her husband who seeks vengeance because his honor and status have been shattered.

Cast: Shahab Hosseini, Taraneh Alidoosti, Babak Karimi, Farid Sajjadi Hosseini
Director: Asghar Farhadi
Writer: Asghar Farhadi
Cinematographer: Hossein Jafarian
Composer: Sattar Oraki
Editor: Hayedeh Safiyari

“Virgin” (Deborah Kampmeier, USA 2003)

Virgin

A few aspects that are common to Split and to Virgin: The female lead is a ‘good’ person but some things she does puts her on the margin of society / She loves but is not loved back / A man destroys her life.
Unbearable music

Cast: Elisabeth Moss, Robin Wright Penn, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Charles Socarides, Socorro Santiago, Peter Garety, Stephanie Gatchet
Written and directed by Deborah Kampmeier
Cinematography: Benjamin Wolf
Editing: Jane Pia Abramowitz

“Split” (Deborah Kampmeier, USA 2016)

Split

A most intelligent cry of revolt against violence perpetrated on women

SPOILERS AHEAD
Inanna (Amy Ferguson) joins an experimental theater group that works on the Mesopotamian myth of Inanna, and more specifically on the liberation of enslaved women. After a few rehearsals, she comes to the conclusion that she does not possess the primal rage and the raw longing for freedom that the other women in the play possess. In a most upsetting scene, these women tell how they have been victims of extreme sexualized violence.
At the same time, Inanna falls head over heels in love with Derek, a mask maker (Morgan Spector), and marries him. Right from the start, she adapts her life to his, while he refuses to change anything in his own life. He doesn’t even stop the affair he had with his assistant (Antonia Campbell-Hughes), claiming that she was there first.
Inanna soon realizes that she is losing her identity while getting nothing in return. Profoundly wounded and feeling like drowning, she is now able to express the primal rage and the raw longing for freedom that the play requires from her.

Cast: Amy Ferguson, Morgan Spector, Anna Mouglalis
Director: Deborah Kampmeier
Writers: Deborah Kampmeier, Deborah Kampmeier
Music: Leslie Graves, Michelangelo Sosnowitz
Cinematography: Alison Kelly
Editing: Siobhan Dunne