Sweeping cultural generalizations aside... I can say this much, that I grew up just down the block from Betty Mahmooody and I can count on one hand the number of times I saw her in almost 20 years. As a kid I used to ask why she never came out of her house, and why I never saw her coming or going or getting the mail, and my mom told me she was scared her old husband might find her and try to hurt her or take her daughter again. I can tell you she was afraid or very changed by her experiences, and that the way she lived was not in the manner or style of a lying gold digger as some reviews have called her. Even if so, which I don't believe, does wanting to marry into money (not that it is admirable) mean that a person deserves to be beaten, abused, held captive, and have their rights stripped? How silly and disproportionate, it is like stoning someone to death for stealing a tube of lipstick. Sexism is still alive when so many people just want to write off what a woman said because she is a "golddigger" or a "slut" or whatever. Ridiculous. I am not so quick to believe this film, perhaps he did want to see his daughter desperately and did seek her, but many abusive persons are possessive and even have an aspect of "loving" who they harm. He abandoned his right to her when he raised a hand to her mother, and I feel no tears should be shed for any paternal pain he may or may not feel.
Review of Ilman tytärtäni
