GLASGOW FILM FESTIVAL 2020 - Hava, Maryam, Aleysha
GLASGOW FILM FESTIVAL 2020Sahraa Karimi’s first narrative feature Hava, Maryam, Ayesha is a portrait of pregnant women in Afghanistan. Hava (Arezoo Ariapoor) is a heavily pregnant housewife, constantly at the beck and call of her demanding husband (Halim Azhman) and father in law (Hanif Nezami). The two men are rude, abrasive and expect Hava to do all of the housework despite her circumstances. They yell at her for the most minuscule things and her only comfort is talking to her unborn child. Maryam (Fereshta Afshar) is an independent career woman working as a local news anchor. She leaves her husband Farid after discovering he had an affair, their entire exchange being via cellphone. She does not reveal to him that she has fallen pregnant. Ayesha (Hasiba Ebrahimi), the youngest of the three main characters, has an arranged marriage to her cousin in order to hide her pregnancy from a boyfriend who left her.
Using three female characters from different socio-economic backgrounds, Karimi explores the loneliness of Afghani women and their position within their culture. The vast majority of the older male characters in the film are especially awful and have no redeeming qualities, they expect women to be subservient and cater to their every need. They can do whatever they wish but the women in their lives cannot. Only the younger men are seen as being kind and helping the women in their lives. Akbar (Modaser Amiri), Hava’s next-door neighbour and the brother of Ayesha, is always happy to go to the market for Hava. Suleiman (Faisal Noori), Ayesha’s cousin and fiancé, is also shown caring for the women in his life, making sure that Ayesha is happy with their engagement. The younger generation of men represents a more hopeful future for women’s standing in Afghanistan.
Caged birds are a recurring motif in the film, a mirror to Hava, Maryam and Ayesha. In Hava’s story, her father in law is shown diligently caring for his pet canaries, giving them kisses and petting their tiny heads. He even sets up traps for the neighbourhood stray cat in order to protect his birds. A bit of a tired metaphor, Hava, Maryam and Ayesha are like the caged birds due to their positions in society that makes them so reliant on men. Each of the titular characters receives about 25 minutes of runtime to showcase their stories, finally coming together in a closing shot of birds flying free and rounding out the message of women’s independence.
Sahraa Karimi produces an interesting look into the lives of Afghani women but it does not feel quite deep enough. As the film progresses to the other women, the previous story is left open-ended, never coming to a satisfying conclusion. The older male characters being irredeemable gives the film a bleak take; hope is shown in the younger men but their niceties are not enough to confirm that the young men will stay respectful of women. Even the stories of the women themselves feel surface level, all of their stories are rather generic: an abusive husband, a cheating husband and a boyfriend that abandons their girlfriend have all been done before and Hava, Maryam, Ayesha does not bring anything new to the discussion. The film’s concept has an interesting premise, but it lacks staying power with the generic path of the women’s stories.