
There Is No Evil
Sheytan vojud nadarad
DIRCETOR: Mohammad Rasoulof COUNTRIES: Germany, Czech Republic, Iran YEAR: 2020 LANGUAGE(S): Farsi SUBTITLES: German RUNNING TIME: 150 min
SECTION: Weekender 2020
SYNOPSIS
Heshmat, an exemplary husband and father, sets off for work very early every morning. Where is he going? Pouya cannot imagine killing another human being, yet he is ordered to do so. Can there be a way out for him? Javad visits his girlfriend Nana for her birthday to propose to her. But this day holds another surprise for Nana. Bahram is a doctor but is not allowed to practise. When his niece Darya visits him from Germany, he decides to tell her the reason why he is an outsider.
Mohammad Rasoulof, NIHRFF Guest of Honour 2015, tells four stories about people whose lives are connected to the death penalty in one way or another in DOCH DAS BÖSS GIBT ES NICHT. They ask to what degree moral integrity is possible under a despotic regime – and at what price it is possible to preserve individual freedom in such situations. Winner of the Golden Bear for Best Film at the Berlinale 2020.
Mohammad Rasoulof
Mohammad Rasoulof comes from Iran and works as an independent director. He released his first feature-length film, The Twilight, in 2002, followed by his best-known film to date, Iron Island, in 2005, for which he received the Film Critics’ Award at the Hamburg Film Festival. In March 2010, Rasoulof was arrested together with Jafar Panahi by Iranian authorities and sentenced to prison for filming without a filming permit and conspiracy against the Islamic Republic of Iran. The appeal against this judgement is still pending. At the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, he won the directing prize in the Un Certain Regard section with Goodbye. Manuscripts Don’t Burn received the FIPRESCI Prize in Cannes in 2013. Mohammad Rasoulof was patron of the NIHRFF 2013.
Mohammad Rasoulof has been honoured with many awards for his films. In 2011, he won the prize for best director in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes for BÉ OMID É DIDAR (GOODBYE, 2011). In 2013, he received the FIPRESCI Prize of the International Film Critics for DAST NEVESHTEHA
NEMISOOZAND (MANUSCRIPTS DON’T BURN, 2013). Most recently, he won the Un Certain Regard main prize for LERD (A MAN OF INTEGRITY, 2017) at the Cannes Film Festival in 2017. When he returned to Iran in September 2017, he was officially banned from leaving the country – a judgement that is still valid today. He was accused of ‘jeopardising national security’ and ‘spreading propaganda against the Muslim government’. He was sentenced to one year in prison, along with a ban on membership of any kind of political or social organisation.
FILMOGRAPHY
A Man of Integrity (2017), Manuscripts Don’t Burn (2013), Goodbye (2011), The White Meadows (2009), Im Reich der Schlüssel (2008), Iron Island (2005), The Twilight (2002)
SCRIPT: Mohammad Rasoulof PRODUCERS: Mohammad Rasoulof, Kaveh Farnam, Farzad Pak CAMERA: Ashkan Ashkani EDITORS: Mohammadreza Muini, Meysam Muini MUSIC: Amir Molookpour CAST: Ehsan Mirhosseini, Kaveh Ahangar, Mohammad Valizadegan, u.a.
PRODUCTION: Cosmopol Film WORLD SALES: Films Boutique GERMAN DISTRIBUTION: Grandfilm