‘Beyond the Wall’ Review: A Grueling Guided Tour of an Iranian Police-State Nightmare

It has been over a week since the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who was arrested in Tehran by the Islamic Republic of Iran's morality police for not wearing her hijab properly. Amini, who died in a hospital after falling into a coma, was allegedly beaten for not wearing a proper headscarf.

If you look at the previous two films from director Ali Abbasi, “Border” and “Shelley,” you are probably taken aback by the visual style and unique storytelling used by the filmmaker. And you probably wouldn’t assume that his next film would be a David Fincher-esque serial killer thriller.

Manori Ravindran International Editor Imprison Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi’s “No Bears” has sold into North America, with Sideshow and Janus Films acquiring U.S. rights, and Films We Like buying the movie for Canada. “No Bears,” which premiered earlier this month at the Venice Film Festival, portrays two parallel love stories. “In both, the lovers are troubled by hidden, inevitable obstacles, the force of superstition and the mechanics of power,” reads an official synopsis. The film is written, produced, and directed by Panahi, and stars Panahi, Naser Hashemi, Vahid Mobaseri, Bakhtiar Panjei, Mina Kavani, Narjes Dalaram and Reza Heydari.

arrested by Iranian authorities after he had inquired about the status of two other detained Iranian directors. The government has now forced him to serve out a six-year jail sentence originally issued to Panahi in December 2010. At that time, he was banned for 20 years from directing movies, writing screenplays or giving any form of interview with an Iranian or foreign press, though he has since showcased other films such as “This Is Not a Film,” “Closed Curtain,” “Taxi” and “3 Faces” in defiance of his order and state-attempted censorship.

a United Nations report, Amini collapsed at a detention center after spending three days in custody of Iran’s morality police, and then died after being transferred to a hospital.

Oscar-winning Iranian director Asghar Farhadi is imploring everyone worldwide to unite “in solidarity” with protesters following the death of Mahsa Amini while in the custody of Iran’s morality police.

Iranian filmmakers have united in penning an open letter to their friends and colleagues across the film industry, requesting their support in defending the rights of Iran’s people. 

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent As protests continue to erupt in Iran and around the world sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini – the young Iranian woman who died last week while being held in custody by morality police for allegedly wearing a loose headscarf – the country’s film community is intensely engaged and keenly aware that their voices are now even more at risk of being quashed. Two-time Oscar-winning Iranian director Asghar Farhadi (“A Separation”), who is currently presiding over the Zurich Film Festival jury, has issued a statement and a video appeal urging artists around the world to proclaim their solidarity with the Iranian people who are protesting against the death of Amini.

Iranian filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi has penned an open letter to the Academy of Motion Pictures, requesting the Academy defend the civil rights of his country’s people. 

killing of Mahsa Amini.On Sept. 16, the 22-year-old was murdered in the nation’s capital for wearing what morality police deemed “immodest clothing.” Authorities denied harming her and claimed she suffered from pre-existing health conditions, which her family disputed.

taking place in Iran right now, let this be your sign to start. Last week, the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody sparked a wave of demonstrations across the country. Detained by Iran’s infamous morality police for wearing an “improper hijab,” Amini spent three days in a coma before she was pronounced dead of what police are calling a heart attack.

she had suffered “a heart attack.” Eyewitnesses, though, watching the police beat her—which many believe resulted in her falling into a deadly coma.Her family has also confirmed that Mahsa had never suffered from a heart condition previously, with her father, Amjad Amini, alleging that he had been denied the right to see footage of the arrest (“I asked them to show me the body cameras of the security officers, they told me the cameras were out of battery,” he ) as well as being prohibited from seeing Mahsa’s body, which had been wrapped in a sheet when presented to him—although he claimed to have noticed suspicious bruising on her feet.A previous statement from the director general of forensic medicine in Tehran province, however, that there were “no signs of injuries to the head and face, no bruises around the eyes, or fractures at the base of Mahsa Amini’s skull.” Numerous human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, have called for further scrutiny, with President Ebrahim Raisi the UN General Assembly that “if her death was due to negligence, it will definitely be investigated.” On the same day, Raisi–who condemned Iranian protestors for their “acts of chaos”–canceled a with Christiane Amanpour after she declined his last-minute request that she wear a headscarf.This content can also be viewed on the site it from.Many in Iran are understandably dubious about claims that Mahsa’s death occurred naturally. Demonstrations began in Kurdistan province on September 17 following Mahsa’s funeral, and rapidly spread across the country with several clips of Iranian citizens publicly going viral.

Michaela Zee editor CNN’s chief international anchor Christiane Amanpour revealed that an interview with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on Wednesday night was canceled, after she declined the president’s last-minute demand to wear a headscarf. “I politely declined,” Amanpour wrote on Twitter. “We are in New York, where there is no law of tradition regarding headscarves. I pointed out that no previous Iranian president has required this when I have interviewed them outside Iran.” According to Amanpour, an aide told the veteran journalist that President Raisi suggested that she wear a headscarf “because it’s the holy months of Muharram and Safar.”

said in a Twitter thread, when an aide of President Raisi approached her. “The president, he said, was suggesting I wear a headscarf, because it’s the holy months of Muharram and Safar,” she tweeted. “I politely declined.

CNN’s chief international anchor Christiane Amanpour said that she declined to do an interview with Iran’s president in New York after one of his staffers informed her that she would be required to wear a headscarf.

Alissa Simon Film Critic Overline: Hed: By Alissa Simon “Subtraction,” from idiosyncratic Iranian helmer-writer Mani Haghighi (“Men at Work,” “Modest Reception,” “A Dragon Arrives!”) is a tense Hitchcockian thriller set in Tehran, where a heavy, non-stop rainfall signals a lingering malaise. There, a young couple come across their doppelgängers. The film premiered at the Toronto festival. The idea for the plot grew out of the helmer’s long-ago trip to Southwest Iran to look at places where the Iran-Iraq war took place.

Houman Seyyedi’s darkly comic drama World War III has been named as Iran’s entry for Best International Feature at the 95th Academy Awards, taking place at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on March 12th, 2023.