Iranian law – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

AN EYE FOR AN EYE – Review by Valerie Kalfrin

August 9, 2026August 9, 2026 Valerie Kalfrin An Eye for an Eye, blood money, Farzad Jafari, Iranian law, murder case, Tahereh, Tanaz Eshaghian, Tribeca 2025, tribeca film festival

How much is a life worth? The provocative documentary An Eye for An Eye raises that question, following one woman in Iran whose in-laws decide whether she deserves execution for killing her husband or their forgiveness for a price. As the film opens, Tahereh has already served fourteen years in prison for strangling her husband, Hossein, but her future is in limbo. Under Iranian law, her in-laws—specifically, her brother-in-law, as head of Hossein’s family—must determine an amount of “blood money” they’ll accept as restitution, or whether she’s even allowed to live.

Festivals Reviews

AN EYE FOR AN EYE (Tribeca 2025) – Review by Beth Accomando

June 11, 2025June 11, 2025 Beth Accomando An Eye for an Eye, blood money, Farzad Jafari, Iranian law, murder case, Tahereh, Tanaz Eshaghian, Tribeca 2025

An Eye for an Eye is sometimes hard to watch – both for the topic and for the way it is made. It takes a fairly recent murder case in Iran to exemplify a justice system rooted in patriarchy and religion, and that feels especially archaic to an outsider looking in. It is a window to a legal system that operates differently from what we have in the U.S. and as an examination of the hardships women face in Iran. Part of the discomfort of watching the film is that the filmmakers are documenting a real person who is waiting to find out if she is going to live or die based on the whims of her vindictive relatives.