Daughters of the Sun
Dakhtaran-e khorshid (original title)
Dakhtaran-e khorshid (original title)
2000 / 109 min
/ Iran / Persian
Writer: /Director: Maryam Shahriar
Cast : Altinay Ghelich
Taghani,Soghra Karimi,Zahra Mohammadi,Habib Haddad
The Iranian film Daughters of
the Sun (Dakhtaran-e Khorshid), directed by Maryam Shahriar, pictures
the poverty of the rural countryside, where desperate families send their
illiterate daughters to a small-scale rug factory in order to gain remittances
from their wages while they live in virtual slavery. They are cruelly punished
for accidents rather than treated medically; mail is kept from them, and they
are unable to leave the factory, where they are locked up at night or otherwise
kept under almost constant surveillance with meager rations. When the film
begins, Amangol (played by Altinay Ghelich Taghani) is having her head shaved
in preparation for her assignment to a factory. Without hair, she appears to be
male (presumably to get higher wages for the poor family) and thus does not
wear the customary head covering. Because she is an excellent weaver and a
male, she is placed in charge of all the female workers but punished when they
weave inferior products. None of the workers is happy; all want to escape. The
scene of a horse liberating itself by running away from a master is the principal
paradigm of the film. Bibigo leaves when married to someone whom her family
chooses, with presumably another life of harsh servitude ahead. Belghies's
uncle committed her to the factory after the rest of her family died during an
earthquake in Tiva. In due course Belghies begs Aman to return to Tiva as her
husband, but the latter declines. there is only one scene where mutual lust can
be inferred from facial expressions. Finally, Aman decides that the only way
out is to burn down the factory, including herself. Daughters of the Sun
is a slow-moving film presenting the thesis that women should be better treated
in Iran. But women will have to act on their own behalf to produce any change,
as the men in the film are beasts. Love scenes were cut from the movie at the
last minute to gain release from the Iranian censors. With opaque subplots, the
filmviewer may find Daughters of the Sun to be almost a silent
film; the power of the message is in facial expressions and scenes of brutality
and poverty more than in words. (PFS Film Review)
