This is a powerful, award-winning film about modern Iran and how patriarchy and theocracy bring terrible consequences for a family unable to escape their dead, crushing weight. Writer and Director Mohammad Rasoulof and his team made the film in secret, and he fled Tehran with some of his cast and crew after being given three prison sentences for dissident activities labelled ‘propaganda against the regime.’ Post-production took place in Germany.

The film brilliantly weaves together the domestic drama of Iman (Missagh Zareh), a conflicted man trapped within an inhumane and corrupt system. He is newly promoted to the eminent rank of Investigator-Judge in the Revolutionary Courts. As the streets fill with protests following Mahsa Amini’s death at the hands of the Security Police, Iman finds himself compelled to pronounce death sentences without even being allowed to study evidence. While his promotion brings better accommodation and pay, he is uncomfortable with the new obligations. And as his profile rises in turbulent times, he is given a gun for self-protection, and must hope that dissidents do not target him or his family. His wife Najmeh (Soheila Golestani) and college-age daughters Rezvan (Mahsa Rostami) and Sana (Setareh Maleki) grow dissatisfied with the increasing restrictions.

So we are claustrophobically trapped within the family, tensions brilliantly foregrounded in handheld and close-up work. Nor is the world beyond the apartment ever far away or comforting. Phone camera footage and newsreels evoke the terrifying scenes of mass protests and their violent suppression, making the context of Iran’s stifling theocracy always present. All is brought into sharp focus when Rezvan’s college friend Sadaf is beaten and shot in the face. Desperate to avoid embarrassment for her husband, Najmeh tries to limit her daughters’ involvement, forcing them to remove Sadaf from the apartment after giving her first aid. But an inevitable argument at dinner sees Rezvan challenge her father and his role as part of the regime. Then the gun disappears. Iman’s career is placed in peril.

A colleague gives him a second gun. His face and address are published online. Increasingly paranoid, but clearly being recognised by doxers who are following and filming, he takes his family away for respite to his birthplace in a remote and deserted village. An extraordinary climax follows which aptly traces the consequences of the misogyny and autocracy at the heart of both this family and of Iranian society.

As testament to the filmmakers’ brave and challenging achievement, despite the film’s huge international success and critical admiration, neither Soheila Golestani nor Missagh Zareh have been allowed to leave Iran. Golestani was recently sentenced to 74 lashes and both were given prison sentences. The film’s positive conclusion shows women loudly and proudly protesting their right to wear, or not wear, the hijab in the streets of Tehran. The striking prologue note about the fig tree’s habitual strangling of its neighbour lingers as the central symbol for a society exposed and damned in this fine picture.

Screening at Eden Court, Inverness until Wed 5 Mar 2025