It wasn’t so long ago that one of the greatest threats to global security was the saber-rattling between the U.S. and Iran. But long misunderstood by Americans, the Islamic Republic is far more complex, as shown in this eye-opening and multi-award-winning film. Directed by Ziba Mir-Hosseini and British filmmaker Kim Longinotto, who has won one Gold and four Silver Hugos at the Chicago International Film Festival (including one for this film in 1998), Divorce Iranian Style goes behind-the-scenes at a divorce court in Tehran, following three couples as they try to resolve their conflicts. Like a real-life forerunner to Asghar Farhadi’s Oscar-winner A Separation, the film offers an intimate and nuanced look at marital strife that is both all too familiar, and yet, also unique to its patriarchal culture. As Michael Wilmington wrote in the Chicago Tribune, “Always disturbing and frequently flabbergasting, the women in Divorce, Iranian Style facing a system stacked heavily against them, may be victims. But they’re not quiet ones.” – Anthony Kaufman, Senior Programmer