‘An Eye For an Eye’ Puts Justice to the Test in Tehran

A documentary by Tanaz Eshagian and Farzad Jafari, “An Eye For An Eye,” opens with a parable culled from a 10th-century Islamic text, “The Book of Oaths.” A man approaches a messenger of Allah with another man in tow, the murderer of his kinsman. The prophet suggests that the claimant either let this man go or collect financial retribution for the killing. When the man rejects both options, he is told by a holy emissary to take the guilty man and “go and kill him, for you are just like him.” A host of observers impress upon him the gravity of these words, prompting a pardon.Forgiveness in this story is implied rather than prescribed, and the brother, mother and nephew of Hossein, the real-life lynchpin of “An Eye For An Eye,” are disinclined to dole it out. Hossein had gone missing for five months before his body was discovered, buried head-first, in the living room of a back-alley rental in Tehran. The mother of the apartment’s current tenant recognized the disinterred Hossein, leading her middle-aged son to flatly state that “no one knows what happened in this house. Only God knows.”Whereupon Ms. Eshagian and Mr. Jafari unspool a story that is, in fact, never truly known. Our protagonist, Tahereh, has recently been released from a 14-year prison sentence for killing her husband, the aforementioned Hossein. Though aware of his faults upon marrying him, including a drug habit, Tahereh hoped to steer Hossein right. The couple went on to have three children, but the situation at home became increasingly untenable.Addiction proved stronger than family. Hossein took his rage out on the wife and kids. After years of enduring physical abuse, as well as Hossein’s suggestion that one of the daughters should be prostituted as a steady means of family income, Tahereh, but maybe not only Tahereh, took action. When Hossein comes home unexpectedly from a presumed business trip, mom and the kids decide to “let’s do it, let’s kill dad.” A scarf was used to strangle Hossein. A hole was dug in the floor. “Those five months [free of Hossein],” Tahereh avers, “were fifty years’ worth of fun.”Tahereh relates the story in a terse, clear-eyed manner, even as we watch the kids attempt to wiggle out from under the camera’s purview. Tahereh is cagey about what happened that fateful night and the story remains naggingly ambiguous. Police reenactments of the crime prove that the family did not have the muscular wherewithal to transport and dispose of a corpse. Then there’s the mystery surrounding a family friend and benefactor, Hamed.Hamed doesn’t appear on screen. The images we see of him are blacked-out photos from the tabloids. Was he in a relationship with Tahereh and did he abet the crime? Tahereh remains mum on the matter. Not so Hossein’s brother, Bashir, who as the patriarchal arm of the family holds his sister-in-law’s fate in his hand. Now that Tahereh has been released from prison, Bashir can, according to the laws of the land, choose either to have her executed or ask for blood money. Bashir appears to have some qualms about the decision, but not so his mother. She wants the unapologetic Tahereh dead, the sooner the better.The loose ends surrounding this case will leave true crime aficionados and women’s right activists frustrated. The filmmakers are neither detectives nor ideologues, having pursued a relatively hands-off approach to storytelling. Were they, you wonder, stifled by the authorities in what they could and could not film or convey? “An Eye For An Eye” is an engrossing mystery that can be difficult to withstand in terms of the emotions elicited and the moral complexities navigated. The picture more than earns its devotional allusions by undergirding the contradictions and complexities of its imperfect players.

‘An Eye For an Eye’ Puts Justice to the Test in Tehran

‘An Eye For an Eye’ Puts Justice to the Test in Tehran

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