A documentary about the persecuted Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh shows her courage and her symbolic importance to the resistance movement

This clandestinely shot documentary about Iranian human-rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh reveals what superheroism looks like in the real world. As significant as the tireless work in lawyer’s cabinets, drab constitutional courts and prison visiting rooms is her symbolic importance: her sinewy persistence and true courage in standing up to Iran’s dogmatic regime have the potential to ignite such qualities in others, and unlock the collective action needed to shift this sclerotic society.

Narrated by Olivia Colman, the film details how this one-time journalist began practising law in 2003, specialising in representing minorities, opposition activists and minors on death row – all groups denied the human rights Iran’s clerics claim are incompatible with Islamic values. Sotoudeh was arrested for endangering state security in 2010, and served more than two years in Tehran’s Evin prison, where she undertook a 50-day hunger strike.

This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.