Iranian expatriate. Marjaneh Halati has created a center in Tehran called Omid e Mehr, where women living on the margins of Iranian society can come for training and hope for a better future.
That is what this documentary is about.
It follows the lives of four young women over an 18 month period and shows how each copes with what life has brought them.
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Twenty year-old Sussan stutters and has some memory loss because she was struck in the head by a man in her life.
Samira struggles with drug addiction.
Mitra is developing a voice of her own in her writing, which helps her deal with her abusive father.
And Nazila, 19, expresses her frustration and rage by recording rap music, which is forbidden by Iranian law.
It is impossible to watch their stories and not be moved.
The audience cheers them on and wishes for them to break out of a system that holds them down, suffocates them.
And, when they go back to old ways, those watching share a sense of disappointment.
Halati’s helps the young women find solutions through therapy, mediation, education, and insights into Iranian society. The center’s goal is to help these people stand on their own.
The camera work is practically invisible so the audience feels like they are right there, that the people being filmed aren’t talking to a camera.
This film goes a long way to showing a part of Iranian life many in the West rarely see.
More about “The Glass House,” which will be available to rent soon, can be found here.
Murphy can be reached at: [email protected]
