Angels of the House of Sun (2009)

Angels in the House of Sun remains one of Rakhshan Banietemad’s most articulate critiques of the treatment of women in contemporary Iranian society. Male-on-female violence is an all-too-common occurrence in Iran. It’s part of a wider exploration of gender imbalance that permeates so much of Banietemad’s work. Here, the filmmaker journeys into the backstreets of one of the poorer districts of Tehran, to a shelter where women can find safety, community and a sense of belonging with others who understand their situation – whose lives have been marked by suffering and humiliation.