Shirin Neshat's 'Women Without Men' Wins Silver Lion at Venice

Shirin Neshat's first feature film 'Women Without Men', based on a novel by Shahrnush Parsipur and set against the backdrop of the 1953 Iranian coup d'état, won the Silver Lion at the 2009 Venice Film Festival. The film intertwines the stories of four women, offering a political commentary on Iranian society. Neshat maintains her signature aesthetic—minimalist imagery, stark light contrasts, and the visual divide between black chadors and white men's shirts. The film's release in France in 2011 coincides with echoes of the 2009 Green Movement protests, though the two historical moments are distinct. Neshat joins a trend of contemporary artists successfully transitioning to cinema, following Steve McQueen's 'Hunger' at Cannes. Meanwhile, Clarisse Hahn is set to release 'Kurdish Lover' in theaters while exhibiting at Galerie Jousse Entreprise. The magazine artpress2 published a special issue on May 13, 2011, exploring this convergence of short and feature films, film and video, and gallery and cinema distribution, featuring artists Catherine Corringer and Bertrand Dezoteux.