North American Premiere

What does one do when his four wives, twenty children and one very foul-mouthed mother, all living under the same roof, are driving him mad? Find another wife, of course.

Acclaimed Swedish filmmaker Nahid Persson (director of the award-winning PROSTITUTION BEHIND THE VEIL) returns to her birthplace to present a humorous and heartbreaking portrait of a polygamous family living in rural Iran. Heda and his four wives, Farang, Goli, Shahpar and Ziba, are among a small group of Iranians living in Koran-sanctioned polygamy. Heda's cantankerous, elderly mother undoubtedly runs the show and pits the wives against each other at every opportunity. The wives, in turn, take her bait and regard one another as bitter rivals. Such daily activities as baking bread, weaving carpets, and tending the sheep become mere backdrops for arguments over who bears the most chores, who demands the most attention, and whose night it is to sleep with Heda.

Yet, the women do occasionally find themselves reluctant co-conspirators, banding together against their inattentive husband—and coming to one another’s aid when it matters most. Although bitter adversaries, second wife Goli extends an extraordinary act of kindness to fourth wife Ziba, who is barren, when she allows Ziba to adopt her newborn baby as her own.

When the four wives hear rumors that Heda is looking to add a fifth, preferably a young virgin who won’t talk back, no measure of rivalry or collectivity can prevent them from having to face this increasingly crowded future.

-Sky Sitney