The verdict is blood revenge: At the age of nineteen, Reyhaneh Jabbari is sentenced to death. In an act of self-defence, she stabs the perpetrator during an attempted rape. Steffi Niederzolls’ documentary reconstructs the story of the student using letters and diary entries that Reyhaneh wrote in prison. Together with her mother and with impressive determination, Reyhaneh fights for the rights of women in Iran and against legal arbitrariness.

In her distressing and frighteningly-contemporary debut film, Niederzoll uses original visual and audio recordings that were smuggled out of Iran. Reyhanehs’ sisters and her mother, Shole Pakravan, have been living in Germany since 2017.