Venice 2024: The Witness (2024) (Shahed)

The Witness, directed by Nader Saeivar and co-written with Jafar Panahi, uses women and dance to tell the story of contemporary Iran.

The Witness
★★★★★

CAUTION: Here be spoilers

The personal is political

Dance is a metaphor for the state of Iran in The Witness.

Elderly activist Talan (Maryam Boubani) is a school teacher and a retired dance teacher. Her son is released from prison. She starts the film by explaining to the camera the importance of keeping going: we see woman dancing in colourful red and white traditional costumes. She looked after a younger woman (Nader Naderpour) when she was orphaned as a child, who is still like a daughter to her and who has carried on her dance studio. This younger woman is married to a man (Abbas Imani) in the government, who physically abuses her and which she covers up. They have a teenage daughter Ghazal (Ghazal Shojaei). One day Talan visits their home, sees signs of struggle and a woman’s body on a bed. But when she reports what she has witnessed to police, she is met with a cover-up and veiled threats because of government connections and forbidden from teaching.

There’s no mistaking what is meant in this film. One-on-one dialogues criticise the repressive political system, the government, domination by the Morality Police, attitudes to the arts, misogyny and the compulsory wearing of headscarves, and the patriarchal subjugation and casual murder of women.

A sub plot of mice in Talan’s flat, her landlord telling her to live with them and her buying poison for them shows one way of dealing with the situation. But there’s an extended sequence at the end featuring Talan approvingly watching Ghazal, who shows there’s another way. She unexpectedly dances and dances freely, drawing back the curtains indoors, and dancing outside until the winds of change blow away the dead leaves and fences, and the gates open. Wow!

The film, though financed in Europe, is shot in the Iranian style. It’s a gripping thriller as well as a huge metaphor. To make the point, the end credits show a dancing gallery of women who have protested, been murdered or who died in unexplained circumstances. When the revolution starts, it will be women who started it.

The Witness is co-written by banned director Jafar Panahi. Saeivar wrote Jafar Panahi’s 3 Faces (2018).

The Witness premiered at the Venice Film Festival on 5 September 2024. International representation is by The PR Factory