Eating the apple from the Tree of Knowledge

Ignorance is bliss. Maintaining the status quo is comforting. Thinking about the problems of society can be tiring, as well as bring feelings of being  powerless to bring effective change. I would like to give an example of a woman filmmaker on the margins, or at least not residing in Hollywood who has championed feminist ideas without being preachy. Samira Makhmalbaf is considered part of the post ideological generation that has grown up in Iran, which means that she wishes to depict stories without an agenda and recognizes the medium of film’s power to act as a mirror reflecting culture and society.

Dialog of injustice or oppression were often at the center of feminist debates in film studies, now it is active at a residual level, in other words we live in a society that prides itself in equal rights, yet there are still instances of discrimination and inequality. Postfeminsm (the era after feminism) recognizes class, race/ethnicity and sexuality influence a woman’s experience and identity. It is important to note, debates about a woman’s equality has become transcultural. As the world becomes more globilzed or as countries become more conscious of societies outside its borders, feminism continues to be challenged.

Feminism is relevant today and we are still in need of finding ways for women to speak about their experiences or be an agent for others and foster change when it is needed. A great example is the 1988 semi-documentary, The Apple, directed by the, then 17 year-old, Samira Makhmalbaf, daughter of the famous Iranian film director, Mohsen Makhmalbaf. Eleven-year-old twin girls, Ma’sumeh and Zahra, had been imprisoned in their home by their parents their entire life. Imprisoning young girls is not common practice in Iran, although the film reveals that the father acts in a way that he feels is in reverence to his religion and is done on behalf of the well-being of his daughters, no matter how extreme the measure. One then must wonder, is the lesser acts that are in accordance with the same values not damaging, will they too be revealed as guises to protect the welfare of women? The Apple is a true story, the beginning of the film when the girls are at the welfare office were shot as they actually happened while the rest has been reenacted. The tensions between the home and society outside correspond to the psychological interior and exterior, it becomes a symbolic link to a cinematic version of the hijab (head scarf) which brings to the forefront the dynamics of a woman’s personal and private space verses public space. At the end of the youtube clip, when the mother is reunited with her daughters, she becomes angry that their heads are not covered with scarves, while she herself is completely covered, nearly formless. I am not suggesting that the headscarf is oppressive, it is a tradition that has established clearer lines of conflict between the identities of the exterior and interior self, as well as society (political) and home life (personal).

See Youtube clip below of the opening of The Apple.

When Sight and Sound suggested that “The Apple like the story of Adam and Eve in the Bible, represents life and knowledge in Iranian poetry.” Samira replied, “We have a similar story in the Qur’an. But I actually found this element in the children’s lives. Because while everyone was worried about the fate of these two girls, they were eating an apple, and truly enjoying it. So I decided to keep the symbol of the apple throughout the film”

Samira talking about what cinema can do.

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