Keswick Film Festival

Synopsis

Things must have improved in Iran since the last time we showed a Mohammad Rasoulof film (2015, Manuscripts Don't Burn); at least this time the cast and crew are willing to attach their names to the film. Last time he took on censorship in Iran; here, still shooting in secret, he brings us 4 tales about men faced with a simple yet unthinkable choice - to follow orders to enforce the death penalty, or resist and risk everything. This is not a film about capital punishment, instead it investigates the effect it has on those carrying out the punishment or their families.

"In its elegantly photographed, classically told and acted mix of domestic scenes, bucolic settings, and character drama, it could sit right alongside a Hollywood epic or arthouse drama on a double bill. But when juxtaposed against a history of Iranian cinema that has often relied on child-centric allegory and non-specific narrative to make its societal critiques, 'There Is No Evil' practically blisters with the intensity of specifically living in Iran as it exists now, as a state once believed to carry out the most executions of any country outside China". – Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times.