Elham is a young, divorced Iranian woman. Seeking to find herself after a near-fatal beating by her husband, she finds solace and salvation in the water and soon makes her mark as a formidable endurance swimmer. In the fight of her life, Elham faces political, religious, and personal obstacles in search of her goal: the Guinness World Record for swimming the longest distance with hands bound.
Manijeh Hekmat is an Iranian film director. Born in 1962 in Farmahin, Iran, she has worked since 1980 as an assistant director and production designer in over 25 films. She directed her first feature film Women's Prison (Zendān-e Zanān) in 2002. This film has been shown at over 80 international film festivals and has received seven prizes. Three Women (Seh Zan) is Hekmat’s second feature film made in 2007.
The depressed Shirin wanders around at her father's funeral. Unexpectedly, she sees a man very much like her father. Regardless of her uncle's objection, Shirin is enchanted by the idea of finding out that man. Reluctantly, her uncle acknowledges that the man is her father's illegitimate child. Looking at gloomy daughter, Shirin's mother tells her about some past events, especially about an unexpected truth that Shirin is her father's adopted daughter. It seems to be clear that Shirin and that man have no blood bond. But her father's mistress tells a different story.
An Iranian diplomat who miraculously survived Taliban's raid on the Iranian consulate in Mazar E Sharif (Afghanistan) narrates his 19 days of hide and escape to reach Iran's borders meanwhile on the other side, the Iranian troops are preparing for retaliation.
In the tenth year of marriage, Babak and Manizheh face the biggest challenge of their life. Financial problems and difficult social situation cause Babak to work very hard and this leads to a deep gap between him and his wife, in a way that Manizheh starts a new relation, the relation which leads her to addiction and immorality. On the verge of her complete collapse, she wakes up to the truth that she has lost her life.
The fault lines in a marriage become evident when an out-of-town couple and their child arrive for a corporate trade show at a Tehran hotel. Accustomed to berating his pretty wife for her shy demeanor and her suburban manner, the husband is taken aback when she blooms under the attentions of a male colleague and is given a role in planning his company’s presentation. (Gene Siskel Film Center)
A hundred and fourteen famous Iranian theater and cinema actresses and a French star: mute spectators at a theatrical representation of Khosrow and Shirin, a Persian poem from the twelfth century, put on stage by Kiarostami. The development of the text -- long a favorite in Persia and the Middle East -- remains invisible to the viewer of the film, the whole story is told by the faces of the women watching the show.