An auto-biographical drama film, “Banoo-Ye Ordibehesht” [The May Lady] follows Forough Kiya, a 42 year-old documentary filmmaker and single mother of a teenage son living in Tehran, Iran. On the reigns of her latest film project where she attempts to seek the perfect mother figure, Forough is torn between her professional and personal desires. Depicting the usual family construct of compromise and question, director Rakhshan Bani-Etemad paints an insightful picture of various women’s realities, the idealization of motherhood, societal constraints and female desires in 1990s Iranian society.

IMAGE: ©Farabi Cinema Foundation