To be Imprisoned Even in One’s Own Fantasy This paper presents an analysis of gender construction in movies. It focuses on films produced by three Iranian women directors: Tahmineh Milani, Rakhshan Bani-Etemad, and Manizheh Hekmat. These directors have made more than thirty films about women’s lives and stories. The plots of their films involve women protagonists who struggle with patriarchy and try to challenge the phallocentrism of post-revolution Iran. However, the latent content of their work communicates a much more pessimistic worldview. Feminist film critics have long argued that the more women work behind the camera, the more powerful female characters they create, the more they present the female role models that instill a strong women image in young girls imagination. Considering this perspective, the aim of my analysis is to explain why these three Iranian filmmakers have produced works in which women are portrayed as passive and powerless actors who can never break the repressive cultural chain and escape the prison of patriarchy. Within the framework of Jacques Lacan’s theory, I will try to explore the unconscious fantasies behind such cinematic productions.