Sentenced to eight years in prison, a flogging, fine, and confiscation of his property writer-director Mohammad Rasoulof (There is no Evil) fled Iran on foot to Europe, after secretly making this film.
It was filmed with a small crew, without professional equipment, and smuggled into Germany where production took place.
The movie includes actual footage taken from mobile phones when students rioted shouting “Women, Life, Freedom!” after the death of 22 year old Mahsa Amini, a young woman who died in police custody after being arrested for not fully covering her head.
Nationwide protestors were violently suppressed by the Iranian authorities, and many thousands were arrested including film, political and sporting personalities.
Iman (Missagh Zareh) is a devout lawyer. He is happy when he comes home after work and tell his devoted wife Najmeh (Soheila Golestami) he has been promoted, to be an investigating judge of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran. With this new position comes a higher salary and better accommodation; good news for his two daughters, who have been sharing bunk beds. And he is given a hand gun as part of his job.
He and his wife warn the two girls Rezvan (Mahsa Rostami) and younger sister Sana (Setareh Maleki) that their lives must change. They must try to be anonymous and stay out of the public eye, as they could be targeted to influence his decisions. Their behaviour must be irreproachable in order not to harm his reputation.
Iman is a decent man who to his dismay, finds his new job is to approve judgements by his superiors without seeing any evidence of their crimes – which lead to death sentences. Civil unrest is rife and his job results in hundreds of deaths.
The two daughters, horrified at what is going on in Iran, rebel against their parents’ wishes, and secretly follow the protests on their mobile phones. Rezvan’s friend Sadaf (Niousha Akhshi) is shot in the face at a university rally and is helped by Najmeh (against her instincts) in a hard to watch scene as she tweezes buckshot from the wound.
There is tension and disharmony in the home. Iman becomes more and more paranoid about his job and the mysterious disappearance of his gun. He becomes suspicious of his family, thinking one of them has taken it.
Then his details are exposed on social media. Feeling unsafe he decides to move the family from their claustrophobic home to his childhood property in the country.
They are filmed by a couple in a car who recognise them at a service station and a car chase follows in which Iman runs their car off the road, and after they reach their destination there is a climax to the film that might have come out of an American Western.
This is a long riveting and disquieting political thriller about State paranoia and misogyny. It won the Best International Film at the National Board of Review – and it is an entry for Best International Feature Film at the 97th Academy Awards.
At Cannes it won Special Jury Prize and had a 12 minute standing ovation.
168 minutes.
Spoken in Persian with English subtitles.
Showing at Somerville Crawley from January 6 to 12.
Watch the trailer…
