Hava, Maryam, Ayesha Directed by Sahraa Karimi
Hava, Maryam, Ayesha
Directed by Sahraa Karimi
Starring: Arezoo Ariapoor, Fereshta Afshar, Hasiba Ebrahimi
Year: 2019
Country: Afghanistan, Iran
Review Author: Roberto Matteucci
Click Here for Italian Version
"My stomach burns." "Eat and it passes you."
The geographical position of Afghanistan is central in the road from China to Europe. The consequence has been terrible, many continuous wars, conflicts, invasions fought in Afghan territory. Began the Macedonians of Alexander the Great. Then the Mongols of Genghis Khan, to the Turks, to the English, to the Russians, to the Taliban. Finally, the Americans after the collapse of the twin towers.
The country has achieved a fragile truce. The security and government control of many provinces are uncertain. However, the presence of American soldiers and other countries allow fair stability, especially in Kabul.
Despite the war and the victims, Afghanistan is a country with high population growth.
The rate is 2.37%, in twenty-ninth place in the world. The birth rate is 37.5 for every thousand people, even in twelfth place in the world. (1)
Population growth does not correspond to an equal economic increase: GDP per capita is just two thousand dollars per person per year. (2)
The director Sahraa Karimi in the film Hava, Maryam, Ayesha, presented at the 76th Venice Film Festival, narrates the feelings and the hard life of the women of Kabul.
Establishing shot on Kabul. It is a large city, typically Arab, with white houses, and flat roofs. Part of the edifices is in the hills while in the plain there are some larger buildings. It is winter, there is still some snow. The sound arrives by ambulance and police sirens.
In Kabul live Hava, Maryam and Ayesha, three very different women.
The director tells us of an Afghanistan in which population growth is a value, but often becomes an insurmountable problem despite the love of having a child. Male chauvinism is the real cause that prevents women from having children. Chauvinism affects all social classes. Men are unfaithful, traitors, deceitful, incapable of loving, good only at treating women as objects.
For the author, there is only one extreme solution. No woman would desire it, but the indignity of their lovers force them: abortion!
The camera films a courtyard. Inside there is a pregnant woman, Haya, is chopping wood. The father-in-law, a despicable old sexist, continues to order, indifferent to her condition. Go to get the spittoon, wash it well, take the grandmother home, go to buy food, cook, serve at the table, go to hide because the husband's friends arrive and do not have to see her. The spouse is an incredible asshole. Haya falls, and he does not care that she no longer feels son moves in the belly. She asks him to take her to a doctor, but he does not care, he wants to go out with mates.
Change the social and cultural environment. Shot of an elegant and beautiful journalist, TV news anchorwoman: Maryam. The newscast talks about the terrorist attacks in Kabul. Maryam's strength is narrated in the sequence of the quarrel with the Tv editor: he proposes her a job as a model. Maryam replies decisively. She firmly refuses a denigration of her professionalism. The editor is silent and apologizes fearfully. Maryam returns home, a refined flat, elegantly furnished. But at home, she is alone. She had married seven years before but after discovering her husband's betrayal, she threw him out. Now she is an unhappy, disappointed, bitter woman. She is pregnant and her husband does not know. He persists to court her to apologize. Her decision is categorical. She prefers sadness and loneliness.
The third girl is Ayesha, eighteen years old, she is pregnant. The boyfriend, after knowing it, abandoned her. Now Ayesha forces herself to accept the marriage with a cousin. Obviously, the child must disappear. With the help of a friend and selling the gifts of the future spouse she finds a clinic.
The three episodes come together in the one final scene.
Ayesha wears a burka to avoid being recognized, walks furtively in a long corridor, the camera is static, and she gets smaller and smaller.
She is with Haya and Maryam in the waiting room for the abortion. Haya is with the burka too, but takes it off.
They are three lonely female, men are non-existent, and they appear just by telephone.
For Hara male are just shadows. Shadows of the husband's friends when they are entering the house. She must stay away and not disturb; she is exclusively a servant.
Also for Maryam and Ayesha, men are human failures. Even these are not seen or heard. As in the theatrical piece by Jean Cocteau - The human Voice – man does not exist, appears just for the words of the woman. The men of Maryam and Ayesha could be imagination.
Men are not useless and insignificant. They are worse, harmful, disinterested, cowards, they flee instead of facing the responsibilities: "you are the error of my life", says Maryam.
They are beautiful, strong women. Haya is too; apparently, father-in-law and husband dominate her but in reality, she faces life with courage. She loves his son; she is radiant when she feels him move.
Symbol of women's energy is understood by a small magnet attached to Maryam's fridge, it says: "I love woman".