There Is No Evil

11/13/2025

Kudos to Mohammad Rasoulof for making a film banned by Iran's authoritarian government. The subject matter alone demonstrates extraordinary courage: four separate stories exploring how ordinary people navigate complicity, conscience, resistance, and moral responsibility when faced with, or forced into, state-sanctioned execution. What makes "There Is No Evil" particularly powerful is how it refuses easy answers. Each segment presents a different relationship to capital punishment—those who participate, those who refuse, those who live with the consequences, those who flee. Rasoulof understands that evil isn't an abstract force but the accumulation of choices made under pressure, the compromises ordinary people make to survive within brutal systems. It's tempting to view this as a dis