This entry in Mehrdad Oskouei’s trilogy on Iranian youth in their nation’s justice system – following It’s Always Late for Freedom (2007) and The Last Days of Winter (2011) – focuses on teenage girls at a rehabilitation and correction center. This facility looks nothing like the stereotypical Iranian prison: the girls enjoy pizza parties, play Truth or Dare and engage in playful snowball fights. Indeed, at times the facility feels like a happy sorority rather than a hijab-clad version of Orange is the New Black.
But when Oskouei begins to show the girls being interviewed about the circumstances that led to their incarceration, the mood becomes more somber. Some girls are mildly elusive in recalling how they wound up arrested, while others bluntly describe the circumstances. One girl insists on being called 651, a reference to the grams of cocaine that she was found transporting at the time of her apprehension by police. Nearly all of the girls acknowledge harassment at various levels by male relatives, and one youth eventually becomes so distraught by the chaos and violence in her life that she wonders if death is a more agreeable solution to her woes.
The film offers a surprising level of sensitivity by Iranian officials at the young prisoners, although it is difficult to determine how much of this occurs strictly for the benefit of the camera. Nonetheless, this production offers remarkable view at a rarely-seen corner of Iranian society.