Keswick Film Club - Reviews - There Is No Evil

Last Sunday evening at the Alhambra the Keswick Film Club showed Mohammed Rasoulof’s latest film: "There Is No Evil".

Rasoulof is one of Iran's foremost film directors. Not only that, he is a man of considerable perseverance and courage. He has twice been imprisoned by the Iranian regime for the subversive nature of his films, and at present lives in internal exile on an island off the southern coast of Iran; he is not allowed to leave the country.

"There Is No Evil" is his most audacious film to date. It deals with a subject the present regime would prefer to keep hidden, the death penalty. In 2020 264 people were executed by hanging in Iran, for crimes ranging from theft and smuggling, to being openly gay and criticizing the authorities. This is the largest confirmed number of state executions of any country in the world.

The film is split into four stories, each involving subjects whose lives are affected by the daily executions in the country. The first story follows a man called Hashmat whose day unfolds with the usual mundanity, picking up his wife, taking his wife and daughter out for pizza, getting the shopping for his infirm mother. Even amidst the chaotic traffic of Tehran he seems placid and subdued. He wakes in the early hours for his work, drives to the prison on the outskirts where he works. We then see him in a small bare room preparing his breakfast, a light above him turns from orange to green, he then presses a button which releases a false floor and four people are hanged simultaneously. He then returns to make tea flicking the kettle switch as nonchalantly as he had pressed the executioner's button.

If this film sounds like a hard watch for 150 minutes, you would in part be right, and yet there is a strange romanticism on display. We meet lovers, travel through ravishing landscapes, and see kindness and beauty in ordinary human relationships. There is ample illustration that the present cruel theocracy operates in a country with a well educated and culturally rich population, enriched by poetry and music.

In spite of everything Rasoulof clearly loves his ancient country. This brave and brilliant film demonstrates the importance of his art. It deserves a wide audience. It is available on DVD from next week.