Shahed / The Witness

 

Nader Saeivar: // شاهد //Shahed / The Witness (DE/AT 2024) starring Maryan Boubani as Boubani.

Sodankylän Elokuvajuhlat / Midnight Sun Film Festival (MSFF) 2025.

Viewed at the Red Tent, 15 June 2025.

IMDb capsule: "After seeing a government official commit murder in Iran, retired dance instructor Tarlan faces a choice: stay quiet under political pressure or risk everything to expose the truth."

SHAHED / THE WITNESS

Tuomo Marttila (MSFF 2025): "Scriptwriter-director Nader Saeivar is known for his collaboration with Iranian film luminary Jafar Panah, who has also visited Sodankylä. Panah was also involved in writing the script for Saeivar’s latest film, The Witness, which won an award in Venice and was inspired by the fight for women’s freedom in Iran. Retired dance teacher Tarlan (Maryam Boubani) witnesses the ongoing abuse and eventual possible murder of her close friend (Hana Kamkar). Behind the violence is her friend’s husband (Nader Naderpour), who works for the government. To get justice Tarlan does everything she can, despite opposition from social forces."

"Like Panah, Saeivar uses a documentary approach in his film, drawing parallels between the struggle for freedom and the expressive power of dance as a means of resisting oppressive legislation. The film depicts intergenerational relationships in a changing culture where various interdependencies drive individuals’ actions. However, its cinematography emphasises Tarlan’s loneliness."

"The Witness shifts into a universal social crime drama comparable to the award-winning works of Mohammad Rasoulof and Asghar Farhadi. The Witness inspires faith in the resistance against an oppressive system through individual perseverance, organisation, and Gandhian non-violent resistance." Tuomo Marttila

NADER SAEIVAR

Tuomo Marttila (MSFF 2025): "Nader Saeivar (born in Tabriz in 1974) is a filmmaker who collaborates with Jafar Panahi and teaches cinema. Saeivar began his career in 1992 with short films and has grown up with the narrative traditions of Russian and Eastern European cinema. Dedicated to filmmaking and keeping it secret with Panah’s support, Saeivar has had his Cannes-winning screenplay 3 Faces (Se rokh, 2018) and his two previous directorial efforts, The Alien (Namo, 2020) and No End (No End, No endeu, 2022), screened at international film festivals. Saeivar’s defence of human rights and artistic freedom places him in the continuum of stand-taking Iranian cinema. We can expect a lot from him in the future, perhaps even a visit to the land of the midnight sun, as his mentor did." (TMa)

SHAHED CREDITS

// شاهد //

Germany/Austria 2024. DIRECTOR: Nader Saeivar. SCREENPLAY: Nader Saeivar, Jafar Panahi • CINEMATOGRAPHY: Rouzbeh Raiga • EDITING: Jafar Panahi • PRODUCTION DESIGN: Leila Naghdi • COSTUMES: Leila Naghdi • SOUND: Behniya Yousefi • MUSIC: Karwan Marouf • CAST: Maryam Boubani, Hana Kamkar, Nadr Naderpour, Abbas Imani, Ghazal Shojaei • PRODUCTION: ArtHood Films, Golden Girls Filmproduktion, Sky Films I • PRODUCERS: Said Nur Akkus, Sabine Gruber, Arash T. Riani, Silvana Santamaria • PRINT SOURCE: Arthood • FORMAT: DCP • LANGUAGE: persia/Persian • SUBTITLES: englanti/English • 100 min

AA: Nader Saeivar's Shahed is another masterpiece of the Iranian cultural diaspora, a brilliant pair to Mohammad Rasoulof's The Seed of the Sacred Fig with which it shares the historical moment (the 2022 protest movement in reaction to the death of Mahsa Amini) and the emphasis on female revolutionary power. This is a film wave in which we can feel that the world is about to move on, a topic of relevance for Iran and the whole world.

The movie is a great drama and a powerful thriller of the classic school. It is story-driven, character-driven and theme-driven. The cast is perfect, and the film proceeds with a calm, determined drive. 

The story of the murder of Zara (Hana Kamkar) by her husband Solat (Nader Naderpour), a sinister Mr. Big of the Iranian security forces, leaves her daughter Ghazal (Ghazal Shojaei) motherless. Zara herself was an orphan who was raised by the dance teacher Tarlan (Maryam Bobani) as her own daughter. They are all devastated, but Tarlan, a union activist and a social activist, does not give up despite intimidation and betrayal on every step of the way. 

The counterforce is the female solidarity at the dance school, a source of joy and beauty. Tarlan responds to the intimidation in the spirit of Mandela. Surrounded by four menacing security agents, she engages in friendly small talk with one of them, a former student of hers. When they patrol 24/7 by her home, she treats them to tea. But in the finale she is about to commit a fatal retribution, only stopped by Ghazal.

The film ends in a magnificent poetic finale, transcending the circumstances of the authoritarian rule, in a note of invincible hope and spirit.

In the final credits we can also read memorial plaques of the heroines of the 2022 revolt.

Shahed is my favourite of the films seen in Sodankylä in 2025.