Film Review: THERE IS NO EVIL
Courtesy of Kino Lorber
Written by: Belle McIntyre
THERE IS NO EVIL (2020) DIR. MOHAMMAD RASOULOF
It makes perfect sense that this extraordinary Iranian film should have won the Golden Bear Award at the 70th Berlin International Film Festival. That the director was not allowed to leave the country to receive the award makes geopolitical sense because he is Iranian. The fact that there is so much high quality film coming from a country that routinely punishes its filmmakers and bans their work at home makes less sense. However, it says a lot about the filmmakers who are willing to risk their safety and security in a notoriously brutal autocracy to tell their stories which are mostly about resistance in the face of overwhelming power. It is as if the restrictions bring out the maximum creativity as a survival tool. Like the films of Jafir Panahir, a colleague of Rasoulof the work tends to be intimate and introverted.
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The structure of the film, which consists of four distinct stories with unrelated characters, has to do with the practice of official executions of civilians accused of dubious offenses, a distinction for which Iran holds second place to China. The insidious ways that totalitarian governments can engage and implicate their populations into complicity is the stuff of these four stories. It’s about the moral ambiguity, the rationalization, the self-preservation, the guilt or denial and the consequences. It addresses the contagion of immorality.
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The first story centers on Heshmat, a totally regular family man who supports a wife, child and mother-in-law. He is responsible and caring and shares responsibilities with his wife. It looks like such a normal story until we realize that part of his high-security job is to push the button which triggers the executions. He has no contact with the victims. But he is the executioner.
The second story revolves around Pouya, one of six military conscripts sharing a cell-like room. Part of their job is to pull the stool out from under a prisoner who has a noose around his neck. Pouya is totally freaking out when it comes to his turn. He is having a nervous breakdown at the thought of what this act will do to his soul. Out of desperation, he tries to bribe one of his comrades to do it for him. Fascinating interactions occur between the men. Finally he embarks on a desperate mission directed by his girlfriend to derail the execution and escape the military. What he does is so intricate and dangerous and brave and he succeeds. The irony is that he has to behave like an assassin to pull it off. Very fast-paced and urban.
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In the third story Javad gets a three-day pass to visit his fiancée Nana on her birthday with a planned proposal. When he arrives at her home he discovers they are in mourning for a revered teacher and family friend who has died. When Javad sees the picture of the deceased he recognizes him as one who he has pulled the stool from in order to get the three-day pass. He never knew the man. He is devastated and mortified and confesses. But his relationship with Nana is ruined. It is a charmingly romantic and, finally, deeply sad story set in a beautifully filmed lush pastoral setting.
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The final story involves Darya (played by the director’s daughter), a medical student, who goes to visit her uncle and his wife on their farm. The farm turns out to be as remote and barren and completely opposite to the previous story’s setting. The uncle who practices ad hoc medicine for the locals with his wife, the pharmacist, lead lives of unimaginable solitude. They raise bees. The circumstances that have brought them to this place are complicated and have to do with the uncle’s defiance of an order to execute 20 years before which caused him to give up everything and self-exile. Darya, upon learning the family truth, is stunningly unforgiving.
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The director has said that the stories are based on ones from his life. Each one surely has a life of its own. It is hard to imagine how this film was made under the radar by a banned director. Each story is fully fleshed out with an impressive and appealing cast of actors and locations, superb cinematography, and effective and evocative soundtracks. There is no evidence of having to make do. It is visually compelling and involving while illuminating some provocative moral dilemmas and the price of compromise. These are very hard choices. There are no easy answers and few good outcomes.
(Available on Kinolorber.com or filmforum.com)
