Iranian filmmaker recreates prisoner torture to shake their tormentors

A committed filmmaker

Mehran Tamadon has already directed several documentaries criticizing the Iranian government, including “Bassidji” and “Iranian”. Following the release of the latter, his Iranian and French passports were temporarily confiscated. He eventually left the Islamic Republic of Iran for good in 2012. According to him, violence is “internalized” by all citizens and operates “like Russian roulette”, potentially affecting anyone at random.

Heartbreaking stories

In “Where God is Not”, several former prisoners recount their traumatic experiences in detention. Mazyar, a former business executive, describes the physical tortures he suffered, while Homa recalls the overcrowded prisons of the 1980s and her capitulation to religious propaganda. Taghi Rahmani, imprisoned for about fifteen years for his political activity, relives isolation in a small Parisian basement.

“Mehran takes risks by bringing trauma back to life (for the victims), but we understand well what it feels like to be tortured. He doesn’t cross boundaries, when it would become obscene,” notes Cristina Nord, a Berlinale official.

A second film on psychological torture

In addition to “Where God is Not”, Mehran Tamadon is also releasing a second film, “My Worst Enemy”, in which he himself becomes a victim of psychological torture. His tormentor is actress Zar Amir Ebrahimi, who fled Iran in 2008 after months of interrogations and humiliations. The director hopes that these films will “shake” the executioners and sow a seed that will have an effect later on.

However, some consider this vision to be “naive”, like Catherine Bizern, artistic director of Cinéma du réel, a Parisian documentary festival. Nevertheless, she praises Tamadon’s “complex” films, which go “beyond emotion” and in which the filmmaker “puts himself in danger”. Taghi Rahmani, for his part, does not believe in the redemptive virtue of the two films, but rather thinks of his wife, human rights icon Narges Mohammadi, currently detained in Iran and a figure of the ongoing protest.