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Four Wives – One Man
Sweden/Iran, 2007, 76 minutes, Color, DVD, Persian, Subtitled
Order No. W09939
From Nahid Persson, the filmmaker of the award-winning Prostitution Behind the Veil, comes an intimate portrait of a polygamist family in a rural Iranian village. Persson reveals the intricacies of the relationships between the four wives, their husband, their astoundingly free-spoken mother-in-law and their numerous children. Sometimes humorous and often heartbreaking, this film follows the daily lives of the wives whose situation has turned them into both bitter rivals and co-conspirators against their abusive husband.
Persson’s camera unobtrusively and beautifully captures the range of the family’s interactions – from peaceful, pastoral scenes of a family picnic, to the temporary chaos caused by a broken faucet in the kitchen, to a furtive, whispered conversation between two wives about the latest beating. The women’s work – making bread, weaving carpets, milking and herding the sheep – provide the background to their frank conversations. Avoiding sensationalism and sentimentality, this film provides unique insights into the practice of polygamy and its effect on the women involved.
AWARDS, FESTIVALS, & SCREENINGS

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Honorable Mention, Society for Visual Anthropology Film Festival |
- Locarno Int’l Film Festival, Critics' Week
- Silverdocs Documentary Festival
- Los Angeles Film Festival
- Recontres International Documentary Film Festival
- Tiburon International Film Festival
- Denver International Film Festival
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QUOTES

"Challenge[s] both Western assumptions about Islamic women's oppression and the patriarchal social structures that shape their daily lives. The four women manage their relationships with each other with a keen sense of dignity as well as of the interdependence of their interests and those of their children."
Patricia White
Chair, Film & Media Studies, Swarthmore College
“Highly Recommended for classes in social and gender relations. Anyone interested in women’s rights and family life around the world will find this documentary thought provoking … Often funny, other times sorrowful, but at all times heartfelt, Four Wives – One Husband is beautifully shot in vivid cinematography.” – EMRO
Malcom L. Rigsby
Educational Media Reviews Online
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Four Wives – One Man is included in the following Special Collections.
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