By Lane Kneedler
AFI FEST Senior Programmer

Eisner winning cartoonist Alison Bechdel articulated her three rules for a movie to attract her interest thusly:

1. Does it have at least two women in it,
2. Who [at some point] talk to each other,
3. About something besides a man

Her admiration for the film ALIEN led her to name this commandment “The Ripley Rule.”  Sadly it seems to become increasingly harder these days to find films, which meet this criterion in mainstream multiplex. Luckily AFI FEST comes to the rescue this year with a few films about genuine and insightful stories involving women.

From Iran there is 3 WOMEN the story of Minou, an expert weaver, who grows so obsessed with repairing a valuable old rug that she barely notices when her daughter disappears. Minou sets off on a quest, through one of Iran’s most remote regions, that may both reunite her with her daughter and help her discover herself.

“This film relates the story of three present generations of the country with all of their affections and problems; the generations who are not able to find each other,” says director Manijeh Hekmat. “They must be with each other, hold dialogues, and with having a common understanding of their historical situation reach a common point to let the territory called Iran continue surviving.”

Another film from the middle east, NILOOFAR is about Niloofar, a 12-year-old Iraqi girl, who dreams of reading and writing, but she lives in a village where education is only for boys. Her mother, a well-known midwife, insists that Niloofar become her apprentice. While assisting her mother during a delivery, Niloofar meets a feminist woman who undertakes to educate her in secret. Unfortunately, in exchange of a field of palm trees, Niloofar’s father promises her in marriage to an older man once she becomes a woman. Horrified, Niloofar does everything in her power to postpone her first period. Destiny catches up with her, but she continues to hide her womanhood from her community, until one day, the truth is revealed.

And representing the Argentine showcase is LION’S DEN. This film, which swept the Lima festival awards, follows an ill-fated and beautiful woman who, after killing her lover, gives birth to a son in prison. A brave new take on the women-in-prison genre, Trapero’s movie explores the themes of redemption and survival.

Finally, kind of stretching the rules a bit is American independent film WENDY AND LUCY by director Kelly Reichart. Wendy is driving with her dog Lucy to Alaska, in hopes of a summer of lucrative work at the fish cannery. When her car breaks down in Oregon, the thin fabric of her financial situation comes apart, and she faces a series of increasingly dire challenges. The latest from Reichardt (OLD JOY) affirms her status as cinema’s poet laureate of the American working class.