Baran Rasoulof, Mahtab Servati, Mohammad Valizadegan Rated 15 Run time 150 mins
The winner of the Golden Bear at the 2020 Berlinale, Iranian filmmaker Rasoulof’s urgent, brilliant new anthology drama explores the lives of executioners in Iran and by expansion the possibilities and limitations of resistance under an authoritarian regime.
This is a topic Rasoulof knows well; one of Iran’s most prominent directors, he was banned from filmmaking in 2017, directed There is No Evil in secret, and a few days after its triumph in Berlin was sentenced to a year in prison.
The film tells four stories related to Iran’s death penalty. In each, a man faces an impossible choice.
We follow their stories as they grapple with their options, contend with the fall out, and witness the impact it has on the lives of those closest to them.
Part thriller, part romance and part family drama There is No Evil depicts a devastating moral quandary and the broader psychological impacts of Iran’s attitude to crime and punishment on its own populace.
A brilliant and timely film that you must see!
98% – Rotten Tomatoes 7.4/10 – IMDB
“Four whirlpool-like stories of emotional dread surrounding the death penalty, they also reinforce the pulsing humanism in this autocratic country’s most fiercely committed storytellers.”
“its elegantly photographed, classically told and acted mix of domestic scenes, bucolic settings, and character drama, it could sit right alongside a Hollywood epic or arthouse drama on a double bill.”
