This will be one of several reviews from this year’s Tribeca film Festival. To follow our coverage, click here.
In Iran, the regime employs an eye-for-an-eye law, dictating that a murderer can be executed if the family of any of their victims decides so. In An Eye for an Eye, directed by Tanaz Eshaghian and Farzad Jafari, the film follows the life of Tahereh, a woman married to her husband Hosseien, a violent former drug addict. The injuries caused by his beating of her included a broken skull, tons of broken teeth, and a spine injury. Once Tahereh tried to get a divorce, the Iranian courts considered her reasoning childish. Turning to the most extreme measures, she, and her eldest daughters killed and buried Hosseien in their home. As a result, Tahereh would be sentenced to sixteen years in prison. Now released following her sentence, it was up to the family of her deceased husband to decide whether or not she would have to pay the ultimate price for her actions.
Through this film, the directing duo tackles a highly anxiety-inducing part of Iranian culture. The victimized family must decide the future of those responsible for their victimization, even if they consider execution as the correct punishment for their pain. Eshaghian and Jafari present the crime in question and the reasoning behind it within the start of the first act. Instead of offering counterpoints for the victim and the offender, the directors focus on the motives behind why Tahereh did what she did. This construction prevents audiences from taking sides, and immediately blaming her and advocating for her execution. In this sense, the point is to highlight the influence of the patriarchy on the legal system and how domestic violence is considered not worthy as a reasonable defense.
Consequently, when audiences meet Bashir, Tahereh’s brother-in-law, the narrative became a clashing of perspectives of the same event. His family has suffered a lot, particularly his mother, an eighty-year-old woman who believes Tahereh should hang for her crime. When the editing by Soren B. Ebbe and Hayedeh Safiyari organizes her explanation of the crime as a defense for domestic abuse, it works to lead audiences to consider the severity of the crime. While still an immoral action, one is more inclined to condemn her undertaking as the punishment for her act of self-defence. Hence, the film presents contradictory feelings towards its viewer and develops an intricate relationship with the actions happening there.
Therefore, despite its relatively short length of only 80-minutes, the film delivers a tense exercise in its expose of the Iranian judicial system throughout. The directors present an ancient model of administering justice, while shocking audiences in detailing the negotiation surrounding how much Tahereh should pay in blood money in order to save her life. In doing so, it features a fascinating balance between her story and that of a family that wants her blood as a means of restitution for her unforgivable crime. Meanwhile, Tahereh’s children are desperate to raise five hundred million and a billion tomans (approximately $30,000 USD) to save her life. It is a contract between a family doing the best to get their mother back and another looking for justice by spilling more blood, should she not pay the price.
In the end, An Eye for an Eye takes a compelling look at an ancient and repressive law that continues to cost Iranian lives. Its directing duo grips audiences with tension while forcing them to answer tough moral questions.
Score = 80/100
*still courtesy of Closer Media*
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Brazilian film writer. He is also a producer and executive producer for Zariah Filmes. Member of the International Film Society Critics Association (IFSCA), International Documentary Association (IDA), and Gotham and Media Film Institute.
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