The Last Days of Winter 2016
Distributed by Cinema Guild, 115 West 30th Street, Suite 800, New York, NY 10001; 212-685-6242
Directed by Mehrdad Oskouei
DVD , color, 52 min., Arabic with English captions
High School - General Adult
Adolescents, Corrections, Criminal Justice, Drugs, Prisoners
Date Entered: 11/30/2016
Reviewed by James Gordon, University at Buffalo Libraries“Why did they give birth to a child like me?” asks one of the seven 10 through 14-year-old males interviewed living in a low security juvenile detention facility in Iran. Director Oskouei obtains oral histories from young hoodlums, who have in common being detained for thefts and robberies they committed to finance their drug habits. Blaming everyone except themselves for their plight, they chastise others for not stopping them. Excuses abound, such as, Allah made them bad. The excuses they make for themselves allow the miscreants to disavow responsibility for their own actions and transfer blame and guilt away from themselves.
The prisoners regret getting caught, feel sorry for themselves, and look forward to the day they can return to freedom so they can buy drugs and steal. Narcissism prevents them from giving any thought those whom they victimize. They boast of their conquests, each trying to impress Oskouei with their crimes.
Oskouei seems to want the viewer to have sympathy for these youthful hooligans. Their wardens offer decent living conditions, but counseling and activity aimed at correcting their behaviors is absent. An assignment might be to analyze how drugs and peer pressure work to undermine the lives of young people. How can the penal system be changed to inculcate the notion of personal responsibility? What can be done to change the selfish, opportunistic ways of thieves?