Skip to main content
Seven Winters in Tehran film image

Seven Winters in Tehran

Sieben Winter in Teheran

This event has passed

Steffi Niederzoll delicately and with great care lays out the story of 19-year-old architecture student Reyhaneh Jabbari, who, in 2007, stabbed a man in self-defence after he tried to rape her. Jabbari was then arrested and sentenced to death. During the next seven years of the judicial process, Jabbari’s supporters scramble to save her, revealing the rotten, prejudiced state of Iran’s justice system. Drawing on footage smuggled out of the country, the film includes interviews with Jabbari’s family members and former prison inmates, who bravely criticize Iran’s patriarchal establishment. Both infuriating and heartbreaking, Niederzoll’s film is another reminder of the suffering Iranian women have endured for decades. And of the resilience of those who are still speaking up and sharing their voices and their stories for the world to hear.  Seven Winters in Tehran is a compelling true-crime narrative using the facts of the case to call attention to the dissolution of women’s rights in Iran. For those interested in human rights, true-crime, masterful documentaries or cinema that is urgent, compelling and profoundly moving, this is strongly recommended.

Director
Credits
Country of Origin

Germany/France

Year

2023

Series

Focus

Language

In Farsi with English subtitles

Film Contact
18+
97 min
Documentary Women Directors

Book Tickets

This event has passed.

Credits

Executive Producer

Melanie Andernach

Producer

Knut Losen

Screenwriter

Steffi Niederzoll

Cinematography

Julia Daschner

Editor

Nicole Kortlüke

Director

Steffi Niederzoll headshot

Steffi Niederzoll

Steffi Niederzoll was born in Nuremberg in 1981. She studied audiovisual media arts at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne (KHM) and the Escuela de Cine y Television in Cuba (EICTV) from 2001-2007. Her short films have successfully screened at numerous renowned national and international film festivals such as Berlinale. Together with Shole Pakravan, she wrote the book How to Become a Butterfly, which will be published by Berlin Verlag in 2023.

Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre

Marcel the Shell With Shoes On

Dir. Dean Fleischer-Camp
121 min

Marcel the Shell with Shoes On is a heartwarming film for all ages. Marcel, a tiny shell, lives with his grandmother Connie in a human house. When a filmmaker discovers Marcel, they team up to search for his long-lost relatives. Rated: G

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

The Wedding Banquet

Dir. Andrew Ahn
103 min

This joyful comedy cleverly updates Ang Lee's 1993 gay marriage comedy and transports the action to contemporary Seattle (actually, Vancouver).

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Tornado

Dir. John Maclean
91 min

Scotland in the 1790s, travelling circus samurai Tornado (Kōki) runs afoul of a band of murderous brigands led by Tim Roth and his ambitious son, Jack Lowden. Mayhem ensues.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Two Women

Dir. Chloé Robichaud
100 min

In this light-hearted, emancipatory take on a classic sex farce, two neglected married women discover the joys of casual sex and get their plumbing fixed.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre
Nechako: It Will Be a Big River Again
Nechako: It Will Be a Big River Again film; overhead shot of churning water

Nechako: It Will Be a Big River Again

Dir. Lyana Patrick
91 min

In the face of environmental destruction, two Nations fight to restore their river and a way of life.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Fairy Creek

Dir. Jen Muranetz
86 min

Considered the largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history, the Fairy Creek blockade led to more than 1200 arrests. What Jen Muranetz's film gives us is the story from the front line from the activists' point of view (often, from the treetops).

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre