On August 26 at 19:00, Steffi Niederzoll’s award-winning documentary Seven Winters in Tehran (2023) will be screened at Sinematek/Sinema Evi in Kadıköy.

Following the screening, there will be a panel discussion featuring director Steffi Niederzoll, film crew member Hasip Çiçek, experimental filmmaker Atefeh Kheirabadi, and Şirin Yalıncakoğlu from the platform We Will Stop Femicides (Kadın Cinayetlerini Durduracağız Platformu).

Tehran, 7 July 2007: Reyhaneh Jabbari, 19, has a business meeting with a new client. For her, this is just another regular day, however her life will change forever when he attempts to rape her. She stabs him in self-defense and flees the place. Later that day, she is arrested and soon charged with murder. Despite much evidence pointing to self-defense, Reyhaneh doesn’t stand a chance in court as her attacker was a well-connected and powerful man who is – even after his death – protected by patriarchal society. Reyhaneh is sentenced to death.

Thanks to personal and secretly recorded videos provided by Reyhaneh’s family, their testimonies, the letters written by Reyhaneh in prison and other archives, the film retraces her trial, detention and fate of this woman who became a symbol of resistance in the country. Her fight for women’s rights echoes the struggle of so many women shedding lights on how Iran treats them.

The film premiered at the 2023 Berlin International Film Festival, where it won both the Compass-Perspektive Award for Best Film (“Perspektive Deutsches Kino”) and the Berlinale Peace Film Prize. In 2024, it won two German Film Awards (Lolas): Best Documentary and Best Editing.

Directed by: Steffi Niederzoll
Documentary, 97 minutes, color, Germany/France, 2023