Perhaps the greatest gift a documentary can give to its viewer is to broaden horizons through knowledge and stories. However, this concept works both ways, since sometimes the stories we hear and the people who tell them may just talk about them for the first time in their lives, due to various reasons, the most powerful being fear and repressions manifested in a system that has mastered the ways of keeping the unwanted voices silent. Iranian director and producer Mehrdad Oskouei has certainly achieved in getting those voices heard in his various documentaries.
“Sunless Shadows” is screening at DOK.Fest Munich
While he was working on his film “Starless Dreams”, a documentary about women in Iran imprisoned and trialed for murder, he heard even more stories about the subject matter, stories of women who had murdered (or assisted in the murder of) their husband, brother-in-laws or fathers. Kept in correctional facilities throughout the country, he became interested in their stories, their relationship toward life and death, their feeling of remorse and guilt, but also how a history of violence within their family played a role in their actions as well as the role of a system that not only tolerates, but frequently encourages male violence. In the end,“Sunless Shadows” will show a very different image of Iran and its idea of mercy and justice, a hidden truth that is, just like the women the director has interviewed, locked away.
However, one of the most powerful sequence of the movie takes place right at the beginning. One of the female prisoners sits in front of the camera, talks about the murder she committed, her feeling of bottled up rage inside before she could not take it any more and how she feels remorse for what she has done. Through the course of the film, the other women also take the opportunity to deliver a video message to their relatives, but also at times to their victims, explaining how they did see no other way, sometimes expressing love for the kind of man they were, but then hate for the man they eventually became. We begin to understand these stories have never been heard before, and we start to see the parallels, how a pattern emerges and how the prison they are in is, in fact, a symbol for an unforgiving, merciless, patriarchal system that rather punishes than investigates.
Because of their circumstances and biographies, the women have become something of a surrogate family for each other. Apart from their individual stories, Oskouei's camera also captures their daily routine, their joyous laughter while playing charade and gossiping while preparing dinner. Despite the omnipresent bars, the prison walls and the watchtowers, these women have formed a loving community, finding the kind of support and love they had wished for when they were still outside these walls.
“Sunless Shadows” is an eye-opening film about female delinquents in Iran. Through his camera, the images and stories he has recorded, Mehrdad Oskouei has indeed managed to give a voice to the voiceless.
