While the male dancer swirls with his mates into a trance, the woman washes herself clean of her womanhood, hidden away. ABSENT WOUND contrasts the Persian soldiers’ training with the recitations of a young girl struggling with her passage to adulthood. This brings the gender separation into view. The film is shot and performed by the director, a woman, in two locations in Iran where women’s presence usually is prohibited: the “House of Strength” and a public men’s bath.