“This movie is predicated on secretly recorded video and sound materials that was smuggled out of Iran,” publicizes the disclaimer of Steffi Niederzoll’s documentary Seven Winters in Tehran, which marks its Worldwide Premiere on the 2023 Copenhagen Worldwide Documentary Movie Pageant. All of it started in 2007, when a 19-year outdated Iranian woman named Reyhaneh Jabbari, takes up the job as an inside designer for a household pal. When a middle-aged man approaches her to design his clinic as effectively, she agrees. The following time she meets the person within the hope to arrange her work, will change the trajectory of her life, her household and the nation’s dialog concerning the legal guidelines that oppress girls eternally. (Additionally learn: Shayda movie review: A powerful semi-autobiographical debut for director Noora Niasari)
Reyhaneh fatally stabbed the person who tried to rape her. She was instantly held captive, and within the two months main as much as the trial, she and her family- comprising of her mom Shole, father Fereydoon, and two youthful sisters Sharare and Shahrzad, got here to know that the person, named Morteza Sarbandi, is linked with the key service. After her arrest, the authorities depart no stone unturned to border Reyhaneh, saying that she had already premeditated the homicide earlier than assembly Morteza. Reyhaneh was transferred to an isolation cell and tortured to admit of her tried crime. The primary decide who questioned the evidences towards Reyhaneh, is transfered, and in his place, an Islamic scholar involves the forefront, and immediately sentences her to demise underneath the Sharia legislation of blood revenge. Provided that Sarbandi’s eldest son Jalal decides to forgive Reyhaneh can the sentence be reversed. But, Niederzoll would not construct any suspense at the price of this agony, her movie establishes the destiny of her tragic protagonist at first. Reyhaneh could be hanged in 2014, on the age of 26.
The chilling story of Seven Winters of Tehran without delay reveals the twisted cycle by which the violent regime of the Iranian Goverment continues to silence and kill girls. The outrage following the demise of Mahsa Amini in police custody, a 22-year-old lady who was detained final September for allegedly failing to put on a hijab in public, hangs like a shadow within the tragic unfolding of occasions that takes place in Seven Winters of Tehran. In her debut function documentary, German filmmaker Steffi Niederzoll, who first heard of Reyhaneh’s story by way of the protests that had reached Turkey, creates a simple uncovering of occasions, with the assistance of interviews with Shole, Sharare and Shahrzad, together with Fereydoon in a digital assembly.
Reyhaneh’s notes in her prison-diary, is narrated by an extra voiceover by Holy Spider actor Zar Amir Ebrahimi to haunting impact. The choice of manufacturing designer Miren Oller to make use of a miniature model of a jail cell to accompany these voiceovers additionally rings out evocatively. Andreas Hildebrandt’s sound design, thoughtfully offers solution to course of the sheer magnitude of Reyhaneh’s story. Niederzoll additionally finds floor to incorporate the tales of numerous different lady like Reyhaneh whose fates are sealed by these undemocratic legal guidelines set by the Iranian authorities. It’s right here when Reyhaneh’s steely resilience to instil the arrogance in lots of different incarcerated girls who have been housed along with her comes ahead. A kind of girls additionally to shares her story in in entrance of the camera- to a shatteringly highly effective second.
Within the second half of Niederzoll’s movie, the narrative turns into the story of a mom in search of justice for her daughter, with Shole’s efforts (by way of protests and social media platforms) to collect press for demonstrating towards the demise penalty positive factors prominence. Video footage of Reyhaneh’s early, carefree years are bridged sensitively by editor Nicole Kortlüke. A few of the grainy cellphone digital camera footage on the finish are powerfully used, with Shole nonetheless ready to know the ultimate verdict and hoping to see her daughter free within the ultimate moments attaining actual emotional impact. Seven Winters in Tehran is an pressing, ferocious work of documentary filmmaking, that exhibits the world what it means to be a girl in current day Iran. The voices of those girls won’t be silenced.