Questions of morality and duty play out against the backdrop of the Iranian justice system in the 2020 Berlinale’s Golden Bear winner.

In recent years, Iran has executed more prisoners per capita than any other nation in the world. But what happens when the executioner refuses to comply? Across a series of tales of reluctance, rebellion and escape, four different characters tasked with this fraught moral choice wrestle with their consciences while living through their own everyday dramas of parenthood, military service, romance and regret.

Dissident director Mohammad Rasoulof (A Man of Integrity, MIFF 2017; Manuscripts Don’t Burn, MIFF 2013) has long shone a spotlight on the injustices and oppressions of his homeland – and faced imprisonment, travel restrictions and a lifetime filmmaking ban as a consequence. Crafted surreptitiously and receiving acclaim across European, Asian and American festivals following its award-winning Berlinale premiere, Rasoulof’s latest salvo is a simultaneously scathing and empathetic meditation on the cultural wounds of state-sanctioned violence. Through beautifully shot compositions, scenes of intimacy, and patient, sometimes painful takes, There Is No Evil also reveals how ‘evil’ can take on many – and deeply human – faces.

“Rasoulof’s style infuses the subject matter with a sense of poetry and moral reckoning that invokes age-old Persian literary traditions.” – Chicago Reader

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