Watching: The Search

Overview

It all began with "Black Friday" - a massacre on Sept 8, 1978, by the Shah's police. Official pronouncements put the death toll at 200, but the next day the people of Teheran witnessed how thousands of bodies were brought to Behast Zahra cemetery. Yet even this wasn't the whole extent of the tragedy. As the families continued looking for their relatives they began to realize just how many had disappeared. Over the next few months the massacres continued, with many thousands more disappearing, until February 11th, 1979, victory day for the Revolution. Naderi's film follows this search for the missing, through which the terrible truth is gradually revealed. The film is not only a documentary but also a document of a horrible crime.