Sheytan vojood nadarad

This is among the top five movies that I have ever watched. The movie atmosphere is just mesmerizing and every scene just grips the audience. I truly hope that the story and its moral dilemma will be remembered for decades or centuries to come, and as humanity, we share more understanding and cooperation among us.

The four act movie is sincere, fascinating and a true work of art.

Modern day iranian filmaking,, this is a bold try,the message delved deep inside a maze of 4 loosely connected stories intoo a whole where regimecritizism is on the agenda. its a beutiful filmographic piece of the art, that may not reach a westeners expectations when viewing it, but its really a roar against the shahlalalalalalala( like the chorus in a bjørn eidsvaag song) shia government of good old persia, todays iran. its a very slow plotted movie, but i guess thats done with a great sense.

its a film about the nations 20 months military service, its about death sentencing, its about being locked up when doing your duties on others locked up, its about political refugees, and its about human relations of many levels, and its view on human rights.

in my opinion its the first part that make the deepest imprint on my mind, just compare the hypnotic effect of the traffic lights colours on the main caracter in this chapter.

the actors are just eminent in their job, dead natural over the whole line, and i really appreciate that the women may show their beautiful faces to the world, compared to other muslim countries. its just not a film for everyone cause its slow and its political, but if interested in iran and persian filmaking this is good stuff thinks the grumpy old man

There is no evil in my life, there just can't be, as long as I don't let it in, however appalling the circumstances. This is the message I learned from this masterpiece so blatantly brute in its theme and so eloquently subtle in its portrayal. Although one of the characters is not forgiven, another will definitely be, and the fact that I know why gives me hope and faith in humanity. So go watch this instead of watching the news, and remember to make the right choice when you know you must.

It was philosopher Hannah Arendt who wrote about the 'banality of evil': those who commit the cruelest acts can be the most ordinary human beings. This is impressively shown in the first chapter of 'There is no evil'. A perfectly ordinary man drives home, parks his car, helps his neighbour, showers, watches television, picks up his wife and daughter, goes shopping, etcetera. When he drives off to work the next day, he hesitates when the traffic light turns green. In the final moments of the episode, the viewer understand why. The shocking last scene turns everything that came before upside down. This is film making at its best.

The other three episodes deal, in different ways, with the same issue: capital punishment. Director Rasoulof is not interested in legal dilemmas surrounding the death penalty, he only shows the consequences it can have. He focuses not on the question if capital punishment can be justified, but on the moral difficulties of those who keep the system running, or who are forced to do that.

The four episodes are quite different. The second one feels like a thriller, the third one like a romance and the fourth like a mystery story. Sometimes the death penalty issue is presented at the start of the episode, sometimes it is only revealed at the end. The four episodes have in common that they are expertly and beautifully filmed. Rasoulof's style is understated and I think most western film makers wouldn't be able to show this much restraint, when dealing with a subject such as this.

The fact that Rasoulof has been convicted for making this film, adds an extra dimension to it. But apart from the political importance, in its own right this is a showpiece of cinematographic craftsmanship. Once again an example of superb Iranian film making.

Prison guards are prisoners themselves, yet they are responsible for their action, in a system that is brutal and oppressive.

Can people abrogate their ethical, humane responsibilities on the ground that they are just following the orders?

Oppressive system break people in more than one way, by denying their rights and forcing, "encouraging" them to conform and oppress others which in turn shatters their humanity!

So who is the evil? The system ( which is made of individuals) or those individuals themselves, with varying degrees of responsibility.

There is always a price we pay for "choices" we make, just as there are reward(s) for those choices. Conformity and making unethical choices, can provide some type of " security", but may not provide peace of mind or ease the pain and the consequences of those choices.

This is well made movie that explores the role of people in a repressive environment, the choices they make and the consequences of those choices in romantic love, alienation, separation, pain and guilt feeling. State enforced capital punishment ( provides the context for the story flow. With lovely cinematography, and a deliberate slow motion in some sequences for viewers contemplation. The acting is good, with emotions well reflected in many close ups. The director should be congratulated for being brave, as making such a film in Iran is not just about budgeting and casting and other tasks of film making, but also risking one's live and making a choice about consequences of such film making.