Atena is a young woman in present-day Iran, with a will as strong as her body. She works in construction, wrestles, goes to the gym, and is determined to set up a women’s club where they can learn and practice the centuries-old Iranian sport of zurkhaneh. Women are barred from the sport in Iran because menstruation is considered to make them impure.
The film follows this cheerful, tireless young woman through her daily activities: carrying backbreaking loads of tiles, running, training in wrestling in the park, and above all attending zurkhaneh training sessions and performances, captured in mesmerizing images. There she debates with men about the injustice of the law. Her family supports her, although her mother is far from happy about her wanting to ride a motorcycle; at the time of filming, this too was forbidden to women. After women took to the roads in large numbers regardless, the law was changed. Atena hopes the same will happen if women start practicing zurkhaneh. She is making the most of the chaos brought by the political developments of recent years.
