Mokarrameh, Memories and Dreams (1999)

Mokarrameh's home overflows with vivid paintings, giving insight into the lives of Iranian women. Mokarrameh, a widow in a rural Iran, once owned a beloved cow. She had to seek grass on a long and tiring walk to feed the animal. One day her children sold the beast without telling her. Overcome by sorrow, she began to paint. Mokarrameh made her first painting (a portrait of the cow) with mud and cow dung on a rock as a means to find consolation for its death. She painted on the walls of her house, on pumpkins, on whatever surfaces she could find until one of her sons, on his monthly visit from Tehran, brought her paper and paint. From that day Mokarrameh has painted tirelessly. Now her home overflows with her colorful work, in which local life, legends and memories are vividly depicted.