Is fighting for the future of your country worth the cost of giving up your family? That’s the question at the heart of Ali Samadi Ahadi’s Seven Days. Offering a powder keg premise that promises a deep dive into the complex politics of democracy, feminism, and human rights in contemporary Iran, the film is a disappointingly inert drama that never fully engages with the billboard sized issues it presents.
After spending six years in prison, 46-year-old Iranian human rights and women’s rights activist Maryam (Vishka Asayesh) receives a rare seven-day medical leave to see a doctor about her heart condition. Instructed by the authorities to stay off social media and not engage in any political activity, the indefatigable Maryam still plans to use the week to pick up her work where it left off. Her husband Behnam (Majid Bakhtiari), teenage daughter Dena (Tanaz Molaei), and young son Alborz (Sam Vafa), who have resettled in Hamburg are the furthest thing from her mind. But Maryam is thrust into making an impossible choice when she discovers her brother Nima (Sina Parvaneh) has helped put together a plan to ferry her across the border to Turkey where she can meet her family and escape the authorities. Embarking on the treacherous two-day journey, Maryam is torn between reuniting permanently with her loved ones or returning to continue advocating for reform in the country she loves.
Sure to earn a fair bit of attention thanks to a script from Mohammad Rasoulof, the filmmaker behind Germany’s Oscar entry and Cannes Special Award winner The Seed of the Sacred Fig, unfortunately, Seven Days is unlikely to conjure similar plaudits. Ahadi can’t seem to work around Rasoulof’s diagrammatic and unsubtle screenplay that only glances at the surface of Maryam’s complex personality and predicament. She’s a woman with the courage to fight a regime, but not face her family with honesty. She grapples with the devotion to her cause against the ferocity of her feelings for her husband and children. Yet, Rasoulof’s script has everybody — most of all Maryam — speak in statements rather than with dialogue that attempts to untangle the situation they find themselves in. Furthermore, he introduces elements that are placed with a clumsiness that would make Chekov ill. Whether’s its Maryam’s celebrity status or heart condition, they only matter when the flagging story needs a visible pulse.
That said, Ahadi is no further help to the film’s lackluster spirit. Seven Days often seems just as long as its title, particularly in its sluggish first half. Maryam’s journey to Turkey is both laboriously detailed but worse of all, tension free. We know she has to survive because the second half of the film couldn’t exist without her. Coupled with the flat and overlit cinematography by Uwe Boll regular Mathias Neumann, and a forgettable, vaguely Middle Eastern score by Ali N. Askin, the film veers heavily toward the broad and one-dimensional style and sentiment of a made-for-TV movie.
Seven Days closes with a quote from currently imprisoned, Nobel Peace Prize-winning Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi, whose life is clearly an inspiration on the film. While the quote selected reflects her regrets and love for her children, a comment she made last year in an interview with Angelia Jolie for Time Magazine is far more potent: “In my belief, life and resistance are intertwined, and fundamentally, our struggle is for life.” This simple, yet profound ideal and its inherent conflict is exactly what’s missing at the core of Seven Days, a tedious drama about rebellion that forgets the messy reality that sometimes doing what’s right, can still leave many feeling wronged.
Director: Ali Samadi Ahadi
Screenplay: Mohammad Rasoulof
Cast: Vishka Asayesh, Majid Bakhtiari, Tanaz Molaei, Sam Vafa, Melika Foroutan
Producers: Mohammad Farokhmanesh, Armin Hofmann, Ali Samadi Ahadi, Frank Geiger
Cinematography: Mathias Neumann
Production design: Anonymus
Costume design: Negar Nemati
Editing: Andrea Mertens
Music: Ali N. Askin
Sound: Nico Berthold, Sonke Strohkark
Production companies: Brave New Work GmbH (Germany)
World sales: Goodfellas
Venue: Toronto International Film Festival (Centrepiece)
In Farsi
113 minutes
