Like
everything else in Iran, being a woman makes it harder to be confined to a
juvenal correctional facility. However, many of the young women remanded there
would prefer to stay rather than return to their families. They are the first to
admit they committed the crimes they were accused of, but viewers will quickly
conclude probably everyone else in their worlds ought to be behind bars, rather
than them, based on the heartbreaking confessions recorded in Mehrdad Oskouei’s
Starless Dreams (trailer here), which screens as part of Documentary, Iranian Style, a new retrospective of the
documentarian’s work starting this Friday at Anthology Film Archives.
This
is Oskouei’s third documentary shot at the Centre for Correction and
Rehabilitation of Young Adults, but it was the first time he was allowed in the
ultra-restricted girls’ section. They really are girls—teens and even tweeners
forced to live on the streets and commit crimes to survive or pay for a fix.
Getting approval for films on the boys was a dicey proposition, but Starless was a particularly daunting
bureaucratic challenge. Nevertheless, it is clear the young women immediately
trusted Oskouei and even forgot his presence during times of high emotions.
Several
of the young residents were sentenced to the Centre for drug-related crimes. At
least one is there for conspiring to kill her violent, drug-addicted father,
much in the style of The Burning Bed.
Several were victims of domestic violence and sexual molestation, which they
fear will only get worse if they are released back into the custody of their abusive
families. However, the Centre’s administration makes it clear once they exit
the property, their former charges are no longer their responsibility. We do not
see very much of the adult supervision in Starless,
but when we do, they look really bad.
This
film will just break your heart over and over again. The stories these young
women have to tell are absolutely harrowing. Yet, they judge themselves just as
harshly as the problematic adults they encounter. Oskouei never directly
addresses politics or ideology, but it is crystal clear his subjects have been
poorly served by Iran’s legal and social welfare systems, as well as the judgmental
misogyny of the Islamist state religion.
