In his latest film, Mehrdad Oskouei, one of the most outstanding documentary filmmakers of our time, takes on the topic of violence against women. The protagonists in Sunless Shadows are teenagers serving prison sentences in a correctional facility in Iran for crimes against their attackers: their fathers, husbands, and brothers. Oskouei observes with terrifying precision the accursed cycle of systemic oppression that is passed down from generation to generation, the only reprieve from which, paradoxically, is a prison term. The director masterfully shows the everyday life of adolescent girls—filled with sadness, but also with the joy and hope that come from sisterhood. Sunless Shadows is undoubtedly one of the most universal portraits of our time, as both viewers and juries have claimed at many of the world’s leading film festivals.

Tadeusz Strączek