Seven Winters in Tehran review: Chilling story of a woman wronged by society and government

“This film is based on secretly recorded video and sound material that was smuggled out of Iran,” announces the disclaimer of Steffi Niederzoll’s documentary Seven Winters in Tehran, which marks its International Premiere at the 2023 Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival. It all began in 2007, when a 19-year old Iranian lady named Reyhaneh Jabbari, takes up the job as an interior designer for a family friend. When a middle-aged man approaches her to design his clinic as well, she agrees. The next time she meets the man in the hope to set up her work, will change the trajectory of her life, her family and the country’s conversation about the laws that oppress women forever. (Also read: Shayda movie review: A powerful semi-autobiographical debut for director Noora Niasari)

Reyhaneh fatally stabbed the man who tried to rape her. She was immediately held captive, and in the two months leading up to the trial, she and her family- comprising of her mother Shole, father Fereydoon, and two younger sisters Sharare and Shahrzad, came to know that the man, named Morteza Sarbandi, is connected with the secret service. After her arrest, the authorities leave no stone unturned to frame Reyhaneh, saying that she had already premeditated the murder before meeting Morteza. Reyhaneh was transferred to an isolation cell and tortured to confess of her attempted crime. The first judge who questioned the evidences against Reyhaneh, is transfered, and in his place, an Islamic scholar comes to the forefront, and instantly sentences her to death under the Sharia law of blood revenge. Only if Sarbandi’s eldest son Jalal decides to forgive Reyhaneh can the sentence be reversed. Yet, Niederzoll doesn’t build any suspense at the cost of this agony, her film establishes the fate of her tragic protagonist in the beginning. Reyhaneh would be hanged in 2014, at the age of 26.

The chilling story of Seven Winters of Tehran at once reveals the twisted cycle in which the violent regime of the Iranian Goverment continues to silence and kill women. The outrage following the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody, a 22-year-old woman who was detained last September for allegedly failing to wear a hijab in public, hangs like a shadow in the tragic unfolding of events that takes place in Seven Winters of Tehran. In her debut feature documentary, German filmmaker Steffi Niederzoll, who first heard of Reyhaneh’s story through the protests that had reached Turkey, creates a straightforward uncovering of events, with the help of interviews with Shole, Sharare and Shahrzad, along with Fereydoon in a virtual meeting.

Reyhaneh’s notes in her prison-diary, is narrated by an additional voiceover by Holy Spider actor Zar Amir Ebrahimi to haunting effect. The decision of production designer Miren Oller to use a miniature version of a prison cell to accompany these voiceovers also rings out evocatively. Andreas Hildebrandt’s sound design, thoughtfully gives way to process the sheer magnitude of Reyhaneh’s story. Niederzoll also finds ground to include the stories of countless other woman like Reyhaneh whose fates are sealed by these undemocratic laws set by the Iranian government. It is here when Reyhaneh’s steely resilience to instil the confidence in many other incarcerated women who were housed with her comes forward. One of those women also to shares her story in in front of the camera- to a shatteringly powerful moment.

In the second half of Niederzoll’s film, the narrative turns into the story of a mother seeking justice for her daughter, with Shole’s efforts (via protests and social media platforms) to gather press for demonstrating against the death penalty gains prominence. Video footage of Reyhaneh’s early, carefree years are bridged sensitively by editor Nicole Kortlüke. Some of the grainy phone camera footage at the end are powerfully used, with Shole still waiting to know the final verdict and hoping to see her daughter free in the final moments attaining real emotional effect. Seven Winters in Tehran is an urgent, ferocious work of documentary filmmaking, that shows the world what it means to be a woman in present day Iran. The voices of these women will not be silenced.