In 2020, it was the winner of the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival and is still one of the most powerful acts of opposition to the Tehran regime and the death penalty: it is "There is no evil", the film directed by Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof, which will be screened on Tuesday 28 March at 5.30 p.m. in the Auditorium of the Rome campus of Università Cattolica.
The initiative, promoted by Professor Giovanni Gambassi and the students of the Undergraduate Degree Programme in Medicine and Surgery at the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, will open at 5.00 p.m. with some testimonies by Iranian students of the degree programme.
The film, shot in secret, begins with twenty-four hours in the life of a man, a worker and a family man, and continues with the story of a young police officer who is entrusted with a difficult and emotionally demanding assignment, passing through the story of a soldier who on his return home discovers a horrible secret, to end with the story of a mysterious doctor and a girl who meet again after many years. These seemingly different, separate and normal stories are actually connected by the narrative thread of the context of Iranian society and an ongoing moral battle.
An original, challenging and interesting film, at the heart of the events that have shaken Iran in recent years, remembering that Rasoulof was unable to reach Berlin to collect the prestigious award and was prevented from leaving the country to continue his work as a director.
«Universities have been the epicentre of the anti-government protests that have been rocking Iran in recent months. Generations of young students have suffered fierce repression following the protests to demand freedom, justice and full respect for human rights. Università Cattolica has decided to join the appeals of the Conference of Italian University Rectors, the Network of Italian Universities for Peace and the Scholars at Risk Network, to express its profound dismay and firm condemnation of the serious events» ‒ anticipates prof. Gambassi, Coordinator of the degree programme in Medicine and Surgery ‒ «it seemed to us, therefore, that a moment of cultural reflection and the screening of a masterpiece by an Iranian director such as ‘There is no evil’ was the most tangible way to reiterate support and express solidarity with the Iranian students at our University in Rome. The aim of this initiative is to keep the attention of our academic community focused on the violence and restrictions on fundamental freedoms that continue daily in Iran, stimulating each one of us to learn more about the reasons behind the protests of thousands of people in Iran and the motivations behind the regime's reaction».
After the events promoted at the University last autumn, in Milan, with significant testimonies, and in Brescia, now the power of cinema will also enter the university lecture halls through stories of everyday life that tell what can happen to ordinary people when they are faced with the choice between submitting to evil and injustice or rebelling, risking their own lives and those of their loved ones, in the inalienable tension of expressing and defending their freedom.
