Nasrin movie review & film summary (2021)

Jeff Kaufman’s brisk and empowering documentary, simply titled “Nasrin,” chronicles the great lengths her and others have traversed for human rights in the Middle East country. 

Filmed from late 2017 thru mid-2018, the doc opens by explaining Nasrin’s special bond with her husband Reza Khandan. The couples share a companionate marriage, whereby Reza totally supports his wife’s work and loves her independent streak. At most junctions, “Nasrin” certainly concerns social justice. But on another spectrum it’s the partnership of these two nurturing individuals that propels Nasrin’s story. You get the sense that Nasrin and Reza, if they wanted to, could easily discover individual success. Yet they only find true happiness and fortitude with the other. Their relationship provides a wonderfully intimate portrait of the life behind an activist. 

Outside of her home life, Nasrin’s career is racked with peril. The Iranian government perpetually singles her out for her activism and law-practicing work. This invasion of privacy certainly isn’t new for the attorney. For much of extremist Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s time in office, dissent and protests were curbed or punished. While helping the Defenders of Human Rights Center, run by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Shirin Ebadi (she appears in this documentary too), Nasrin watched as the vice president of the organization, Narges Mohammadi, was arrested in 2015 and sentenced to 16 years in prison. Mohammadi was only just released in October 2020.

I’m particularly drawn to how Kaufman isn’t solely confined to Nasrin’s story. While the majority of the film focuses on her efforts, it aims to tell the country-wide effort to enact change, from the aforementioned Mohammadi to Ebadi, to the Iranian film director Jafar Panahi and the young reformer Narges Hosseini. Arrested for her public protest of removing her hijab in public and waving it in the air, Hosseini is threatened with major prison time. Nasrin comes to her defense, and during that time other women begin participating in what became known as the "Girls of Enghelab Street.” Hosseini’s story exemplifies the innumerable heroes in the fight for social justice. Likewise, her ordeal explains the injustice of the Iranian justice system in Tehran. Nasrin, for instance, needs three bail visits to negotiate Hosseini’s release because a dodgy presiding judge refuses to meet with her.

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