Seven Days, directed by Ali Samadi Ahai and written by Mohammed Rasoulof, is a poignant film that explores the human tensions between political resistance and personal sacrifice.
Lonely Road
by Alexa DalbySeven Days
CAUTION: Here be spoilers
Written by Mohammad Rasoulof — also in Toronto with The Seed of the Sacred Fig — and shot by Mathias Neumann, Seven Days perfectly captures the personal costs of the struggle for human rights.
Seven Days is an introspective portrayal of Maryam (Vishka Asayesh), directed by Ali Samadi Ahadi. Her character is based on real-life activist Narges Mohammadi, who is imprisoned by the Iranian government for her leadership in the anti-regime movement. Maryam gets rare medical leave of seven days from Iran as she needs treatment. She must choose between escaping to her husband and children or returning to prison and continuing her battle for human rights and democracy in Iran.
Unknown to her, her brother and husband have arranged for her to flee Iran – a tortuous, dangerous escape route led by smugglers over deep snow in Kurdish mountains – to a remote village in Turkey.
Beautifully shot, Seven Days powerfully conveys the reality of Iran, the fear of the police on the secret escape route, the desperation of those who attempt it and Maryam’s determination to see her two children, who have grown up without her in Germany and speak a language she cannot understand.
By the time she reaches Turkey, they have only two days to get to know each other again in a house in the little mountain village before Maryam has to make the agonising choice to either stay with her family and claim asylum or return to prison to continue to fight for human rights.
Like so many decisions in Iran, the personal is political. Maryam says, tellingly, that as a woman, she is doubly discriminated against – in the world and in her family, where she is expected to be present despite her work in a way a man is not. Maryam has to make a moral choice that affects her and all her family and that’s the crux of the film.
Seven Days, premiering in the Centrepiece section of this year’s Toronto Film Festival on 6 September 2024, is a gripping and thought-provoking film that explores the tensions between political resistance and personal sacrifice. International representation is by The PR Factory.
