On June 20, 2009, Neda Agha-Soltan was shot and killed on the streets of Tehran during the turmoil that followed the Iranian presidential contest. Within hours, images of her dying moments, captured on cell phones, appeared on computer screens across the world, focusing the world's attention on mass protests against the rigged elections in Iran. Featuring previously unseen footage of Neda with friend and family, as well as exclusive video of her recorded the day she died, "For Neda" debuts just before the anniversary of her death.
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I still remember to this very day watching that video of her death online, when it went viral. Some images stay with you forever, and Neda's death did that for me. I'm not Iranian so I don't know much and didn't know much about Iranian's political unrest until I watched this recently. I was delighted to come across this film that shed so much light onto the events leading up to her death, and consequently thereafter. It was important to tell her story, and justice was served well. She was destined to leave an impact some way or another, as you find out about her courageous nature and character growing up. What a hero. No propaganda here, just truth and the search for freedom.
The danger of films like For Neda is that they tend to place their subject matter on a pedestal. Such, unfortunately, is the case with this obsequious hagiography about Neda Agha-Soltan, the young woman murdered by basij militia in 2009. The film is relentlessly orientalist, featuring interviews with middle-class and professional Iranians who, naturally, want to convey the message that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is the new Hitler. For Neda is also padded with footage from superior documentaries such as Letters to the President and Divorce Iranian Style. All in all, this is a film made by western liberals, for western liberals. It's not bad, and the raw demonstration footage has value, but overall feels more like propaganda than the truth.
