
Embattled in Iran: Diary from a Warzone
Two men living under fire film their own lives on cell phones, one in Tehran, the other in Baluchestan near the Pakistani border, and smuggle the footage out of Iran. The film picks up after January's mass protests were crushed by the regime and after the US and Israel launched strikes on the country in late February, a period when authorities imposed a near-total internet blackout to choke off information. Neither man shows his face; both know that pressing record on a phone can be treated as evidence against them. Their footage shows bombed streets, blacked-out neighborhoods, and the daily improvisation of getting food, water, and news when official channels have gone dark. DW builds the film entirely around this smuggled material, letting the two men's own recordings and voices carry the account of a war most outsiders are only seeing through state statements. It is less a report on the conflict than a record of what it feels like to live through it while the regime tries to make sure no one is watching.