The Day I Became a Woman

The Day I Became a Woman.

The movie is shot as three vignettes. The first part starts as a young girl, Hava, wakes on her ninth birthday. Her friend Hassan arrives to play with her and is told that today is the day she becomes a woman. She is no longer allowed to play with her male friends and must start wearing a chador and hiding herself from male non-family members. Hava negotiates with her mother and grandmother for an extra hour to play with Hassan. She goes to find Hassan only to learn that he is now being forced by his sister to stay inside and finish his homework.

The second part, called Ahoo, begins with a man galloping through the countryside, along the coast. We find he is chasing his wife, who is in a bicycle race. He tells her to stop riding. With little or no dialog from her she just keeps on pedaling. As various male figures ride up to her, threatening her with everything from divorce, to losing her family she just continues on. After each threat she seems even more determined to continue and we see her cycle into the lead. Finally, she sees her brothers waiting on the road for her and she finally stops. As they approach her and start arguing with her the camera moves farther and farther away. We never find out how this story ends.

In the final story an old woman gets off an airplane and is carted around by a young boy on a wheelchair or rickshaw type vehicle. He asks her where she wants to go and her reply is that she wants to go to the market to buy furniture.
She wanders through shopping malls buying “whatever she never had”. She finally sets up all her purchases on the beach. The story has no real ending.

As Hoora floats off, with her purchases, to a boat in the distance there is no clear indication of how this story will end. This theme is repeated in each of the stories. We see the characters walk off toward their futures, but get the feeling that the future is not necessarily written yet.