Where God Is Not

Là où Dieu n'est pas

Three former political prisoners of the Iranian regime re-enact their experiences of interrogation, torture and isolation in Mehran Tamadon’s visceral and confrontational film.

Alongside his companion film My Worst Enemy (also featured in this festival), Where God Is Not is a powerful portrait of the abuse of power. Taghi, Homa and Mazyar, now living in Paris, spent years inside Iran’s infamous Evin and Ghezel Hesar prisons. Together with Tamadon, they rebuild the physical spaces of their incarceration as they remember it – from prison cell to torture room – in an exercise of embodied reconstruction. Their quietly stoic retelling brings into sharp focus the extent of their trauma, but also the limits of their ability to fully convey their experiences. The result is an unflinching account of being pushed to the extremes of one’s own humanity – what it means to be broken and to resist.

Content Guidance: contains descriptions of torture and sexual violence