Yalda, a Night for Forgiveness

Movie
German title	Yalda, a Night for Forgiveness
Original title	Yalda
Country of production	France , Germany , Switzerland , Luxembourg
original language	Persian
Publishing year	2019
length	89 minutes
Age rating	FSK 12
Rod
Director	Massoud Bakhshi
script	Massoud Bakhshi
production	Jacques Bidou , ; Marianne Dumoulin
camera	Julian Atanassov
cut	Jacques Comets
occupation
	Sadaf Asgari : Maryam; Behnaz Jafari : Mona; Babak Karimi : Ayat; Arman Darvish : Omid; Fereshteh Sadre Orafaiy : mother; Forough Ghajabagli : Keshavarz; Fereshteh Hosseini : Anar; Faghiheh Soltani : Firouz;

Yalda, a Night for Forgiveness is a film drama by Massoud Bakhshi that premiered on February 1, 2019 as part of the International Fajr Film Festival , was presented at the Sundance Film Festival from the end of January 2020 and at the Berlin Film Festival in February 2020 . The purely European production is scheduled to hit German cinemas on August 27, 2020.

action

Maryam tries to explain herself in an Iranian reality TV show, here the location is Tehran

It was night in Tehran when the police took young Maryam Komijani with flashing lights into the studio of the Iranian TV station, which specializes in entertainment and tabloid topics. On this evening of the Yalda festival at the winter solstice, the early 20-year-old is invited to the program “Joy of Forgiveness”. Mr. Ayat, the showrunner of the format, assures her that she will save her life by taking part in the show. But you have to wait a little longer for another guest to arrive. Maryam nervously watches the other program items on the reality TV show , in which she is supposed to tell her story in front of an audience of millions. She stares mesmerized at the screens as the show begins with the lurid opening credits.

Minutes later, on the live show, she sits across from the only person she can save, Mona Zia, the grown-up daughter of her husband Nasser Zia. All Mona has to do is forgive Maryam for the murder of her father, because the motto of the show is "Forgiveness is more joy than revenge". Maryam would have liked to talk to her in private, but Mona's delay did not allow this. Viewers at home in front of the TV are also invited to give their opinion by texting them to vote on whether they think Maryam should be forgiven.

Her father was the driver of the wealthy entrepreneur Nasser Zia. He supported Maryam's family financially after his death. She was 14 years old when he died. Soon Nasser had persuaded her to have a "temporary marriage", to which Maryam agreed, although at 65 he could have been her grandfather. However, contrary to what was agreed, Maryam became pregnant during this marriage. She affirmed in the program that she loved him like a father and did not kill, everything was an accident. However, she was sentenced to death for suspected murder. She explains that she left the apartment in a panic that day, not knowing that her husband was still alive. His daughter Mona, on the other hand, who is the heir of his advertising agency, believes Maryam only wanted to marry him for his money and accuses her of not helping her injured father, who lived 40 minutes after the accident, and calling emergency services. She tells how good her father and herself have always been to Maryam.

While for Maryam this evening it is about nothing less than bare survival, the employees in the television studio show very little empathy and do their work very professionally. Even the women who work in the background of the show are all too boring and not entertaining. Maryam's plea for forgiveness is also not convincing enough. They are therefore constantly giving stage directions from the recording room in order to make the program more interesting for the audience. Even Maryam's mother seems to have other things on her mind and forget that this is about her daughter's life.

A famous Iranian film star was also invited to the show on the occasion of the Yalda Festival and sacrificed a little of her precious time to read Hāfiz . Law students have prepared a petition for Mona, which they read, asking for Maryam's forgiveness. When Mona finds out during the last commercial break that Maryam's allegedly deceased child is still alive and that she has a brother who is entitled to inheritance, she excitedly leaves the studio. It must be brought back to the studio by employees of the broadcaster.

At first she doesn't want to accept the blood money and doesn't want to forgive Maryam either, but in the end she forgives her and signs the relevant contracts so that the sponsors of the show can pay her the blood money . Maryam is allowed to spend a short time with her baby, but even at her request, Mona refuses to allow her son to bear her father's name.

production

Film staff and funding

Directed by Massoud Bakhshi , who also wrote the script. Born in Tehran in 1972 and working as a film critic, screenwriter and producer, the filmmaker made 12 documentaries and short films. In Yalda, a Night for Forgiveness is his second feature film. His first feature film, A Respectable Family , was presented at the Cannes Film Festival in 2012 in the side series Quinzaine des Réalisateurs.

The film received project film funding from the Franco-German Funding Commission in the amount of 190,000 euros, from the Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg in the amount of 100,000 euros and from Nordmedia in the amount of 50,000 euros. The project received further funding from the Film Fund Luxembourg in the amount of 120,000 euros, from Eurimages of 160,000 and from Cinéforom.

Film title, idea and topics

Massoud Bakhshi at the premiere of the film in February 2019 at the Fajr International Film Festival

The Yalda night , which gave the film its title, is a Persian festival that is celebrated on the "longest and darkest night of the year" in Afghanistan, Iran and Tajikistan. It takes place on the night of the winter solstice. According to the director himself, this celebration had always impressed the director since he was a child and he therefore considered it the perfect time in his story: “a long night in which anything can happen.” The director also explained that this type of reality show, like “Joy of Forgiveness” in his film, Iran really does exist. It is about pardoning convicts. The show that inspired him most in his work has been on the air for about ten years and is a huge hit in Ramadan in Iran. A friend told him the story of a woman on one of these programs who was sentenced to death for the murder of her husband.

The director compares the Iranian law of retribution and forgiveness, which is the focus of his film, with the principle of "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth". It is an essential part of Islamic law. If the victim's family is willing to forgive, there will be no execution and the sentenced person must serve their sentence in prison. Regarding temporary marriage (“Sigheh”) , another peculiarity of Islamic law, the director says that such a marriage of a predetermined duration could last a day or months. This form of marriage goes back to the origins of Islam, when there were many wars and therefore many widows, which is why men were allowed to have several wives. Such a contract could also grant the woman a certain amount of money, but in no case would she be entitled to her husband's inheritance. However, any child conceived by such a marriage can claim a portion of the father's inheritance. Often men left their "temporary" wives and also their children, who thus had no name and became "bastards". Recent temporary marriage laws have sought to better protect women and children born from such marriages, Bakhshi said.

Cast, filming and publishing

The director cast the leading role of the young Maryam with the young actress Sadaf Asgari . Her mother is played by Fereshteh Sadre Orafaiy . Behnaz Jafari plays Mona, the grown daughter of her late husband. Babak Karimi took on the role of Mr. Ayat, the show runner of the show "Joy of Forgiveness".

The shooting took place on 32 days between mid-September and mid-October 2018 in the Iranian capital Tehran , the location of the film. The first shot is a flight over the city, past the Milad Tower . Julian Atanassov acted as cameraman .

The film was first shown on February 1, 2019 as part of the International Fajr Film Festival in Tehran. From January 26, 2020 Yalda was shown at the Sundance Film Festival in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition, in February 2020 at the Berlin Film Festival as part of the Generation 14plus section. A theatrical release in Germany is planned for August 27, 2020. Since the film had already been selected for the 55th edition of the Karlovy Vary Film Festival , but it was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic, screenings took place in early July 2020 as part of the “KVIFF at Your Cinema” initiative, where it was one of 16 Films was shown for nine days in various cinemas in the Czech Republic. Also in early July 2020 it was presented at the Split Festival of Mediterranean Film.

reception

Possible use in class

The online portal kinofenster.de recommends the film from the 10th grade for the subjects ethics, religion, philosophy, legal theory and German and offers materials for the film for the classroom. There it says, among other things, for understanding it is advisable to clarify the concepts of “temporary marriage” and “blood money” mentioned in the film. In addition to an analysis of the criticism of Iranian society and jurisprudence contained in the film, it is above all worthwhile to examine the ethical and moral questions raised by the film. For example, the students could consider what guilt, atonement and forgiveness mean and how they themselves assess the case described in Yalda.