In the aftermath of Jina Mahsa Amini's 2022 murder by the Islamic Republic’s morality police, the citizens of Iran erupted into an unprecedented political moment not seen since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The film The Smallest Power follows an Iranian medical resident who walks by the daily protests on her way to work each day. One day, her life is transformed when regime forces stormed the intensive care unit, trying to arrest a fellow doctor who was involved with the protests. She and her classmates sat side-by-side on the floor for approximately five hours, preventing the guards from taking him away. Ultimately, this dangerous gesture worked, and the guards left.
The film is an unprecedented window into an Iranian woman’s journey, as the Islamic Republic faces a once-in-a-generation revolutionary moment. While we have seen numerous phone videos of the recent uprisings in Iran—people burning their hijabs in the streets, young schoolgirls flipping off images of the Ayatollah—little work has been published that illuminates the individual human experience in the country.
The Smallest Power is the result of numerous interviews conducted through encrypted lines with the participant, as she secretly conveyed her experiences from her apartment closet in Iran to Iranian-American filmmaker and journalist Andy Sarjahani. Sarjahani researched and reported this story in partnership with The New Yorker's Documentary division. Due to the extreme risks associated with dissent, the participant’s identity and exact location are kept anonymous using animation.
