In the west, there are occasional cries for so-called "victim's justice", where the person who suffers from a crime has a say in the treatment of the criminal: this deceptively simple film looks at how such a system works where it's actually practiced, under Islamic law in Iran. At first, the movie's set-up seems primitive, and there seems to be undue absence of emphasis on the crime itself: the immediately sympathetic characters all claim that their friend, a murderer, "doesn't deserve to die", but this is merely asserted and never proved. But as the film proceeds, it becomes clear that this is not the point: instead we see how, with the final verdict put in the hands of the dead person's father, responsibility for the killer's fate in passed onto those (both the father and also those who must plead with him for clemency) who cannot deal with it, and who will find no closure through being asked to take it on. The film's depiction of the role of women in an Islamic society is also perceptive and interesting. The subtle ending perfectly concludes a quiet tragedy that ultimately delivers more than is promised at the start.
Review of Beautiful City
