User Reviews

Four excellently told stories about the very personal impact the death penalty can have on its executors. Not so much an Iran-specific story, this film rather puts forward a general pledge against the mere existence of capital punishment from the perspective of people "doing the dirty job" (not always voluntarily). Well played, well told, well shot, well directed. Very important and enjoyable film.

This film consists of four parts. Every part is around one core topic: depicting people's free wills to execute death penalty or refuse to retrieve of one's life, under an extremely despotic regime. Also, those four parts bring different watching feelings to me.

Part 1 "There Is No Evil" This is the most shocking part for me, making me stunnng and unforgettable for its ending. Although it starts in a slow-paced moving combing with several ordinary scenes, its ending even reveals that this middle-aged male executioner has his own family stuffs to solve, just as you and me.

Part 2 "She Said, 'You Can Do It'" This part describes a male soldier who wanted to avoid form killing a prisoner. At first, he behaved like a coward, almost trembling weeping for his duty to execute tonight's death penalty and receiving the warm advices and harsh words from his colleagues. (He constantly picked up his girlfriend's call as well.) Finally, he successfully escaped from the prison without killing one person, meeting his girlfriend. Just like their secret conspiracy! From their happy faces and the roadtrip sceneries that they drived and passed by, I can sense the wind, the sunshine and the freedom of joy.

Part 3 "Birthday" This part is the most reflective for me because the contrast of 'life vs. death' reveals in a sorrowful way. The girl understood that her boyfriend was her teacher's executioner (in exchange for 3 days off from work) at her teacher's funeral in her birthday. With bittersweet tears, the girl broke up with him, firmly declaring her position.

Part 4 "Kiss Me" This part shows a father chose to refuse to execute death penalty when he was a young soldier, causing he send out his daughther to relatives and firstly meet her after many years. He decided to suppress his desire to see her with silent endurance for a long time, just because he insisted that human lives deserved better outcomings other than death (though his daughter might be hard to forgive his behavior for destroying their family relationship). It seems that there are two sides obviously: One side is happily staying with family but full of feeling of guilty (being responsible for the cruel duties); the other side is tough but still believing humanity and justice, trying to live and love.

Unlike Part 1 (executioner himself) and Part 2 (an escaping soldier), Part 3 and Part 4 reveal why some people make their decision, and Part 4 shows how the protagonist insists the value of humanitarianism all the time. Under the despotic regime, this is truly hard to make a choice. It's the point that I respect the director of this film.

In sum, I recommend this film. It's worth watching!

Rasoulof's new film 'There Is No Evil' (Persian title- Satan doesn't exist) is an anthology film (consisting of four short film-segments) concerning the capital punishment in Iran. We know about the traditional Govt. System and dictatorship exists in Iran and the result- it pulls the country towards strangulation and anarchism.

The film actually presents itself as an illustration and gives a genuine look at those Iranians who serve as executioners and those who show courage to refuse. Mohammad Rasoulof's film ( who has been barred from leaving the country since 2017) is nothing but an enthralling ride, it gives rise to those questions- the terror of what it means to live in a world where every resolution brings new questions. He challenges the viewer's morality as well as its characters and fortifies them to take action.

Film also presents the situation- the hardships they have to face, how it affects their life whether they do it (doing their job as executioners) or not...I think it's more about this helpless situation-you have to face consequences; a point of no return.

'There is no Evil' is also a very captivating thriller...sets the premise of each story really well, slowly unfolds the painful secrets and truths while focusing on family, love, freedom etc. To make each story to deliver their individual effectiveness.

Ashkani's brilliant cinematography of sublime close-up shots and long takes, also the landscapes of countryside which actually helps to develop the story really well and certain intimacy in director's storytelling creates a poetic charm in it and takes to a higher cinematic level.

But Rasoulof left us many questions with no actual answers. He explained that the film is about "people taking responsibility" for their actions, and that each story "is based on my own experience." For me he is most prominent revolutionary filmmaker of Iran; one who has seen 'A man of Integrity', 'Manuscripts don't burn', 'Goodbye' definitely knows that.

Long Live Iranian Cinema!

The title of this film baffled me, as writer-director Mohammad Rasoulof is clearly attacking an evil, namely the excessive fondness Iran's theocratic regime has for executing people. The original Persian title translates as "Satan Doesn't Exist," which no doubt enraged the ayatollahs but emphasizes that the evil comes from people who are indifferent to the suffering of others. The film takes 150 minutes to tell its four stories, each featuring a different man: I was tempted to leave during the first, which seemed to be going on too long and getting nowhere, and featured an actress with an irritating voice, but I'm glad I stayed. That episode reminds us of Hannah Arendt's line about the banality of evil. Heshmat, a big, calm bear of a man, seems perfectly normal. We see him going about his mundane life, a dutiful husband, father and son. At the end of the episode he goes to work at a prison, and in a truly shocking scene, does his duty. Well, he was only obeying orders (sound familiar?) For him it's just an interruption to his breakfast, and it provides a reasonable living for him and his family.

The remaining episodes all show us that young Iranians must do military service, and that can involve executing someone by kicking away the stool. Failure to obey means an extension of their service, and they'll be unable to get a job or a passport until it's completed. Our hero in the second story, Pouya, really is a hero. He can't face killing anyone, so as he's walking a condemned man to the place of execution Pouya escapes, meets up with his girlfriend and heads for the border. Bahram in the final tale had done much the same, and now middle-aged he lives in a remote desert area, off the radar. In the third part, Java has done his duty in order to get three days' leave to see his girlfriend. He's not an evil man, but he's not interested in politics or in thinking, and presumes anyone convicted must be guilty. He reminded me of Trump's "I love the poorly educated": they're the easiest to fool.

Despite some longueurs this is a gripping film, and made me want to see his earlier works , such as "A Man of Integrity" and "Manuscripts Don't Burn." It seems that his earlier films had upset the regime and like Jafar Panahi of "White Balloon" and "Offside" fame he has spent time in prison and is banned making films and from leaving Iran. "Evil" had to be made in secret, but you'd never guess it. The technical standards are high, particularly the cinematography. I just hope no-one else in the cast and crew is punished by the regime.

The other side of evil is....still evil. Just as a poor man is a rich man without wealth, so too is a rich man a poor man with wealth. The evil? There's no going beyond the evil, the ills and the torment the criminal and the justice system has caused and requested: a request that people exist in a society with respect and care as a community has been put into question. Downcast eyes, the men experience more emotional torment and pain in this film than I have felt in a long time in relation to a male character. The light, or their love of life taken through law and the physical felt experience performing an execution of an unknown man. Their depression and trauma-related physical, emotional and social illnesses do not re-present a healthy society. A criminal, for example in Sharia Law who has raped a child, created revenge porn, murdered, sold illicit drugs (etc) has an impact in society beyond their body. They construct death sentences through these acts (child sex abuse has been researched and revealed the long-term effects and impact socially and emotionally in society. What justice for them when my own country needs a royal commission simply to say sorry?), how should the individual be punished or changed within the current system? This film showed the other side, not our condemnation of execution in the light of the condemned person, but the executioner, the conscript, the father, the man who through duty and his country's law must perform an act that effects his life beyond the act. I found the writing of these men, the characters a gift to me of genuine pain and authentic exploration of lived experience beyond my own English culture, Australia. Their duty and their pain was foreign and intense and I admired their vulnerability as well as the unresolved problems they faced, the torment in their own intimate lives beyond the execution a question and a challenge to my own world experience.