Salome of Our Days: From Misogyny to a Woman-Centric Narrative

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“The first recorded sex crime in Biblical history.” This is how the main character of Atom Egoyan’s new feature film, “Seven Veils”, describes “Salome” as she is invited to stage the famous Strauss opera. The film is a new take on Salome’s story, modernized and adapted to contemporary social and cultural realities, while intertwining Egoyan’s intricate narrative parallels.

The first mention of Salome appears in the New Testament, where she is described as the daughter of Princess Herodias and the stepdaughter of Herod Antipas. Salome becomes infatuated with John the Baptist, who has been imprisoned by Herod for insulting his wife, Herodias. Meanwhile, Herod, captivated by Salome, asks her to dance for him and promises to grant any wish she desires. After consulting with her mother, Salome requests John the Baptist’s head, which is then delivered to her on a silver platter.

For centuries, the image of a femme fatale blinded by lust has inspired countless artists—musicians, writers, and painters—each crafting their own interpretation of the Salome narrative. One of the most renowned works is Oscar Wilde’s one-act tragedy (1893), which later inspired Richard Strauss to compose his opera (1905). Wilde introduced the concept of the Dance of the Seven Veils, a dance said to symbolize the seven deadly sins. In Armenian art, the most iconic representations of Salome include the painting by Vardges Sureniants and the sculpture by Hakob Gyurjian.

In 1996, Atom Egoyan first directed Salome as an opera and restaged the production several times in the following years. However, limited by the opera’s traditional constraints, Egoyan sought greater artistic freedom to reinterpret the narrative. This led him to adapt the story for the screen, creating the character Jeanine (played by Amanda Seyfried), who stages Strauss’ work from her own perspective, despite facing resistance and dissatisfaction from the opera’s management. 

The world premiere of Seven Veils took place at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival with subsequent screenings at the Berlinale (2024) and at the opening of the 21st Golden Apricot International Film Festival back in July this year.

It’s unclear what specific changes Egoyan initially intended for the opera, but Seven Veils offers a series of suggestions through its structure, narrative developments, and the opera being staged within the film. The most significant change across these layers is the reimagining of Salome’s character. Alongside the onstage action, the film delves into Jeanine’s personal life, drawing parallels between the two worlds to underscore the drama. The modifications Jeanine makes to the opera are shaped by her personal experiences and past traumas. Like Salome, Jeanine is another woman navigating a man’s world, and is the object of their desires. However, rather than portraying her as egocentric and capricious, Egoyan presents her as a victim of this lust.

Just like Salome, Jeanine was loved by her father, Harold, “too much”. Although there is no direct mention of sexual harassment, there are videos from her teenage years where her father ties her eyes and asks her to dance.It is clear that more transpired in the past than just dancing and eating tangerines, as Jeanine avoids returning to their house and later insists on erasing her father’s face from the family portrait. The other man in her life is Charles. He directed the opera for years while Jeanine was his assistant, and also his lover. Before his death, Charles wanted Jeanine to continue his work and the opera management (the director of the opera is Charles’ wife) agreed. Charles had included the aforementioned videotapes in his previous staging while using his lover’s trauma “for the sake of art.” 

The third man in Jeanine’s life is her husband, who cheats on her with little remorse and offers nothing but shallow remarks. Egoyan also reexamines the role of the mother, both in Salome’s story and Jeanine’s, suggesting that they bear equal responsibility for their daughters’ suffering. Jeanine’s mother failed to shield her from her father’s “love,” and in Egoyan’s interpretation of the opera, it remains ambiguous whether Herodias directly participated in the beheading of John the Baptist, beyond simply urging her daughter to ask for his head. These narrative threads culminate in Salome’s dance of the Seven Veils. Mostly known as a dance of temptation and full of erotic details, in the film it turns into a scene of Salome’s gang rape. 

Running parallel to the narrative of Salome, the film weaves in additional plotlines, including a nod to the #MeToo movement. This subplot deepens the Jeanine/Salome connection by following an opera worker who is assaulted by the lead actor. By chance, she records the incident on her phone. Aware of her rights, she quickly posts the video on social media, but not before attempting to blackmail the opera management by demanding a role in the production for her lover. Another thread that Egoyan introduces, though less developed, involves intrusive media figures who show no respect for personal boundaries.

The choice of Seven Veils as the opening film for the Golden Apricot International Film Festival presents an intriguing contrast to the selection of Kevin Spacey as the guest of honor. Spacey, who faced allegations of sexual harassment involving underage boys but was acquitted in court a few years ago, received a warm welcome in the city, marked by admiration and excitement, despite initial controversy. This juxtaposition highlights that Armenian society remains largely indifferent to the issues raised by the #MeToo movement.

For decades, researchers and scholars have sought to reinterpret and analyze Salome’s story from feminist perspectives. In Seven Veils, Egoyan elevates this discourse by portraying Salome not as a cruel femme fatale, but as the primary victim of the narrative. This modernization of an archetypal female character, along with the representation of various types of female characters in parallel, serves as compelling evidence of the progress made in gender equality discourse and the growing demand for broader representation of female-driven narratives in Western culture. Armenia, too, is gradually and somewhat hesitantly moving in this direction.

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