Seven Winters in Tehran

• This sombre and thorough film from German director Steffi Niederzoll examines a single earlier case which indicates the ingrained nature of the way the patriarchal Iranian courts are rife with corruption and, particulary, stacked against women.

• Niederzoll's film gives room to the perspectives of relatives, friends, and companions of Reyhaneh Jabbari, who was sentenced to death for defending herself against sexualised violence and its legitimisation by the regime. Not an easy watch but worth every single minute.

• Thus, Seven Winters in Tehran is an outcry against oppression that seeks to break the silence through a documentary where Steffi Niederzoll displays immense tact and ingenuity, avoiding revictimization and graphic violence while making the audience understand and truly feel the helplessness this story generates.

• Some recordings are devastating, notably that final phone call where Reyhaneh tells her mother they are almost certainly coming to take her to be executed. Her letters, magnificent yet terrifying given the horror of what they describe, are read by actress Zar Amir Ebrahimi.

• The film is a synthesis of the young woman's letters—read in an evocative voice-over by Zar Amir Ebrahimi—along with home video footage and interviews with members of the Jabbari family (plus her lawyer and one of her cellmates), all meticulously assembled into a coherent narrative.

1 / 5