Narges Mohammadi was awarded the2023 Nobel Peace Prize. But she was unable be able to accept the prize herself, because she has beenin jail since 2021 in Tehran's notorious Evin prison. Mohammadi has been imprisoned many times for protesting against dictatorial regimes and human rights violations.
She herself has experienced gender-based oppression and violence. She has been abused by regime officials and has survived "white torture,” a type of psychological torture carried out in solitary confinement. Her reports on "white torture" are harrowing: Prisoners are locked in two-by-three meter cells that are permanently lit, though often without any natural light. This form of torture is designed to psychologically break detainees, forcing them into false confessions which subsequently puts them at risk of being sentenced to execution.
Inmates experience a complete loss of control: they lose their sense of time, space, and their own body. "White torture" leaves no visible scars. Nevertheless, upon release from prison, some people die as a result of mental breakdown or suicide, as they find they can no longer live with the traumatic effects.
Mohammadi's 2023 Nobel Peace Prize also honors all the Iranians who took to the streets against their country’s regime under the slogan, "Woman, Life, Freedom."
This documentary by Katja Deiss and Narges Mohammadi is not only a portrait of the Iranian human rights activist, but an appeal from her jail cell: Mohammadi managed to smuggle messages out of prison for the film. She also produced a documentary herself during a period of release.
"Unbreakable: My Fight for Freedom in Iran" was produced by German public broadcasters Hessischer Rundfunk and Deutsche Welle, together with German Dream Productions.
It gives voice to victims of torture and political activists as well as and members of Narges Mohammadi's family, who live in exile.
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