Twenty-one weeks later

Fiction | Short

SYNOPSIS

A young woman who has decides to have an abortion while her husband disagrees…l

Movie specifications

Duration : 14′

Director : Nasrin Mohammadpour

Producer : Nasrin Mohammadpour

Actress : Banafsheh Riazi

Country of Production :  Iran

Release Date :  2023

Cinematography : Behrouz Badrouj

Sound : Zohreh  Ali Akbari

Editor : Emad Khodabakhsh

Storyline

A young woman decides to have an abortion in pursuit of her women’s rights regarding the right time for pregnancy.  While her husband disagrees and threatens her, she has made her decision and illegally aborts her fetus after twenty-one weeks of pregnancy.

She wants to bury the fetus to diminish her own guilty feeling, so she wanders around the city looking for a suitable burial place.  She faces some problems and finally loses her purse and the hidden fetus inside it due to the theft of her bag.

trailer

In today’s world, the issue of women’s body, the pregnancy and the important issue of abortion has been influenced by the power of men and the policies of governments in patriarchal societies like Iran. Thus this has caused women to have no rights over their own bodies, and due to Islamic religion and special rituals, abortion after a period of soul formation in the fetus is considered as a sin and it is heinous crime.  Accordingly, as a female activist in the field of social work and women’s studies, I determined the most important mission of my artistic and social career to address the important problems of women society, especially in the patriarchal society, which are often ignored.  My interest in cinema to reflect women’s concerns comes from the fact that I believe that cinema is a tool to make women aware of their rights, and at the same time, it is a threat to the government’s neglect of women’s empowerment.  Cinema can also show the problems of different groups of women, reflect women’s voices in society, and subsequently increase attention to these issues.  Therefore, making films in the field of women is one of the priorities in my life so that I can play my role as a woman in supporting women.

Director’s Statement