The dialogue proposes a reflection on how, for hundreds of years, various practices in traditional patriarchal rural societies have strictly regulated the role of women, reducing it to reproductive and domestic aspects. The power and respect asymmetry between the roles of women and men in society has led to many injustices and excesses. The two mirror-image films offer us a rare insight on how the role of women has been managed by two types of customs.

The Peasentsby Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman reveals a widespread model in traditional societies: a young woman, in love with a man of similar age, is married against her will to his father. She is "bargained" into this marriage to elevate the man's prestige. The woman refuses to give her husband an heir, and furthermore, she maintains her romantic relationship with the man's son even after the wedding. She thus becomes a symbol of defiance and the sin of following her own desires instead of fulfilling her obligation to provide an heir. As a result, the community—driven by group dynamics, including the other married women—views her as the source of all evil and expels her from the village. The action is set in a traditional Polish village but could easily take place in any traditional European village.

House With A Voice by Kristine Nrecaj and Birthe Templin shows us a very rare but traditional model in which women assumed the role of men, either voluntarily or due to parental pressure (in families where no boys were born). In traditional Albanian families, men controlled all women actions, even deciding when and where they could leave the house. In the documentary, women who have become men testify about the advantages of their lives as burnesha: freedom of movement, choices, and independence. But, we also learn about the constraints they face: not having a family of their own, giving up the feminine aspects.

The dialogue aims to identify and bring into question the sources and practices of present-day gender and even misogynist inequalities, that are perpetuated from the past.

*The talk will take place in romanian language with invited experts, filmmakers, moderator and streamed online.