Seven Winters in Tehran

This devastating documentary tells the story of Reyhaneh Jabbari, a female student in Tehran, who was hanged for murder after she acted in self-defence against a rapist who held an important position in Iranian society. Told over the seven years from 2007 to 2014, the film chronicles the attempts by Jabbari and her family to extract leniency from the state and the dead man’s family. In Iran, murder is a ‘blood revenge’ crime and punishment is determined by the family of the victim. Reconstructed from secretly recorded videos provided by Jabbari’s family and the letters she wrote in prison, Seven Winters in Tehran is a powerful tribute to a woman who, in both her life and her death, became an enduring symbol of resistance and women’s rights throughout Iran and beyond.