A fas­ci­nat­ing and inti­mate por­trait of a seem­ing­ly unlike­ly artist. Mokar­rameh, a widow living in rural Iran, dips into her mem­o­ries as well as into colour­ful local leg­ends to create vivid, detailed paint­ings. Her intense desire to create began when she lost her cow. Dis­traught, she con­soled her­self by paint­ing on a rock. Now, years later, Mokarrameh’s home lit­er­al­ly over­flows with her paint­ings. Orig­i­nal­ly, she worked with mud and cow dung; now she uses paints bought by her son. A dis­turb­ing com­men­tary on the role of women emerges when her husband’s first wife comes for tea. Amidst their bick­er­ing, the two women recall their hard lives, and Mokar­rameh reveals that her art is a »means of sub­stance«. Kathy Geritz