Nasrin

The situation of women in Iran today is spotlighted in an outstanding documentary.

A demand calling for a prisoner to be released was made by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights recognising the unfairness of the prison sentence in question and the risks attached to it given that the jail concerned had a reputation for torture, often imposed solitary confinement and was in this time of Covid even more dangerous than ever for someone who had health issues. In so far as this describes what happened in the case of the Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, few people around the world are unaware of it. Much less well known is the fact that exactly the same situation applies regarding the Iranian human rights activist Nasrin Sotoudeh who is the subject of this admirable documentary. She was first imprisoned in 2010 but in 2013 Iran elected a new president, Hassan Rouhani, and he chose to adopt a more moderate stance than his predecessor. He accordingly released a number of political prisoners, Nasrin included. The present concerns for her epitomised by the call from the UN arise from a second sentence imposed in 2019, one for 38½ years with 148 lashes in addition. What justified this in the eyes of the authorities was the fact that this female lawyer had become famous for taking a stand centred both on rights for women (she strongly opposed the requirement to wear the hijab) and on the need to oppose persecutions that amounted to a denial of freedom over religious beliefs.

Nasrin is a splendid documentary made by Jeff Kaufman. He himself was banned from Iran having earlier made a short film about religious intolerance there, but this is still his work in that he has assembled the footage which was shot in Iran by a number of photographers who have felt the need to remain anonymous. Accordingly, the structure of the film (for the most part admirably judged) is down to him. Comparable anonymity to that claimed by the photographers was sought by many working on projects with the director Jafar Panahi after the authorities had banned him from making films so it feels entirely appropriate that Panahi should put in an appearance here visiting Nasrin Sotoudeh (indeed he already knew her since she had a cameo in his film Taxi! which he made in 2015, the relevant extract from it being included here).

Kaufman’s aim is to tell Sotoudeh’s story using footage of her shot over the years with particular emphasis on the decade between 2009 and 2019. This involves something of a balancing act, but one that he pulls off with real skill. Allowing for those ignorant about Iran, just enough of its history is touched on (ironically a statement at the start underlines the fact that women there were better off in 530 BC than they are now!). Another important element covered is to show enough of Nasrin’s daily life for her to register as a wife and mother, and it is this that makes the film so involving on a personal level. References to some of her legal cases in defence of people unjustly persecuted serve to illustrate the many restrictions on freedom in Iran, but at the very centre of the film is the treatment meted out by the authorities on Nasrin herself, on her family and on colleagues of hers with a comparable commitment to seeking a better life for the women of Iran.

If there is a flaw in this film, it is the familiar one of not shaping the final sequences quite succinctly enough. Here I question the sudden late introduction of material connected with a prison performance of Ariel Dorfman’s play Death and the Maiden just when the film needs to build directly to its climax. But that’s a minor issue and Nasrin is hugely rewarding. It is a neat touch to have Olivia Colman on the soundtrack from time to time reading from her letters, but it is Nasrin herself who makes the film inspirational as she continues to devote herself with relentless optimism to the cause in which she believes regardless of the cost.

MANSEL STIMPSON

Featuring  Nasrin Sotoudeh, Ann Curry, Shirin Ebadi, Nerges Hosseini, Reza Khandan, Jafar Panahi, Taghi Rahmani, Mariette Schaake, Mansoureh Shojajee, and with the voice of Olivia Colman.

Dir Jeff Kaufman, Pro Jeff Kaufman and Marcia Ross, Screenplay Jeff Kaufman, Ph Anonymous, Ed Asher Bingham, Music Tyler Strickland.

Floating World Pictures-True Story.
92 mins. USA. 2020. Rel: 28 May 2021. Available on True Story. No Cert.