- 1991movierewind
Episode #138: Not Without My Daughter
Listen to Episode 138 of the Podcast here while you enjoy the show notes.
SUMMARY - In Not Without My Daughter, Betty Mahmoody (played by Sally Field) travels to Iran with her young daughter and husband (played by Alfred Molina) to visit his family for two weeks. While there, Betty learns that her husband never intended to return to America and her rights are extremely limited, meaning she is trapped in the country and needs to find a way back home.
Screenplay by David W. Rintels; Directed by Brian Gilbert; and released on January 11,1991.
FILM DISCUSSION
The movie deals with domestic violence and the psychological impact it causes. Before anything else, we wanted to offer a couple links that you could use if you're able and willing to provide assistance.
https://www.cawc.org/ - Connections for Abused Women and their Children is a charity that is local to us that we support.
https://www.charitynavigator.org/ - Charity Navigator is a great resource that can assist you in finding any charity and provide more insight as to how trustworthy the organization may be, and often provides breakdowns showing how the charity spends their donations. Please consider using that resource to find organizations in your area, or for any cause you might want to support.
You have a seemingly loving family with a successful doctor
And you get some blatant racism from his co-workers that we're meant to be offended by
but then the movie becomes incredibly problematic and basically takes the side of those racist doctors
This isn't an easy movie to talk about as we don't question Betty's story. However, the filmmaking makes insinuations that are very problematic.
She meets some people who pretend they coudl help, but it falls flat.
There are good people there, of course, but they are very much treated like the exception to the rule.
The acting from Mahtob's actress Sheila Rosenthal was fantastic, though.
We know that certain changes were made to the story, like escaping through the desert instead of a snowy area.
and the ending was appropriately cheesy as well.
Awards Talk: At the Young Artist Awards, Sheila Rosenthal won Best Young Actress Co-Starring in a Motion Picture. Sally Field was nominated for a Razzie for Worst Actress.
TRUE CRIME & POP CULTURE
This week we're talking about the Mahmoody family.
Betty and Mahtob on Daytime Talk Shows
And here is a review of all 3 books in the Not Without My Daughter triology
Sayyed Mahmoody made his own Documentary. Here is Part 1
Lastly, Variety has a review of this Without My daughter Documentary
RANKINGS & RATINGS
Nikki 1-5 star scale - 2 out of 5
Jon 0-4 star scale - 2 1/2 out of 4
Would you watch it again? - Not a chance. We'd like to see more Iranian stories or documentaries outlining some of the political conflict, what the area was like under the previous regime, etc. Basically movies and stories that present some depth and range to a culture that was not afforded that courtesy here.
If you want to watch Not Without My Daughter, as of this recording in November 2023, it’s available on Tubi, MGM+, Digital Rental, VHS, DVD. Check your local listings.
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