REVIEW: CLAIMANT (SHORT) ★★★★
CLAIMANT (20 min.) is written and directed by Iranian filmmaker Nadereh Sadat Serki. She is living in Iran and the film was shot in Tehran. Claimant is the first short film that Nadereh has directed, though not the first film she’s written as she helped pen the script for the feature film CONJUGAL VISIT from 2022. However, Claimant is her own doing and it’s a success.
The story’s theme is centered around the patriarchal legal system and family structures still widespread across Iran and how it effects the rights of women and children – especially when it comes to sexual crimes and the pursuit of justice in a system that often protects the male perpetrator over the alleged female victim. So, how do you go about it as a father if you want justice for your daughter?
Everything is not as it seems at first glance in Nedereh’s punchy film that is quite intriguing until the very end, though the finale itself lacks a little of the raw emotions the amazing build-up possesses. However, the overall point comes across just fine when father and daughter sits in the car at the very end and leave the audience to reflect upon the nature of the crime and what actually happened and the potentially detrimental effects of the sexual abuse.
To make matters worse the moral failure of the man who was supposed to help the poor girl runs like a theme across the entire film and ponders the begging question of “why?”. Why did he do it? What moral malfunction would lead to a crime like the one presented in this story? The examination of evil wrongdoing is one you must carry out from all possible angles and even though Claimant doesn’t fully flesh out the intricate layers of the perpetrators motives it certainly creates a bold attempt of it.
The most disturbing element of the whole story is perhaps how the laws are infested with a deep patriarchal belief system that distorts the perception of guilt and in many cases exonerates the male perpetrator and instead passes on blame to the vulnerable women and children.
Considering the context of the film’s birth and the subject matter at hand Nadereh has shown real courage and in some ways gone out on a limp creating this story, but all praises to her for putting a much needed spotlight on the diminished rights of women and children and the flawed individuals that is supposed to protect these rights - some of them maybe victims of the flawed system itself?
