The Film “When God Sleeps” Chooses Stereotypes About Iran Over Good Storytelling

Simplistic, sloppy, and deliberately misleading, a documentary on Iranian musician Shahin Najafi falsely suggests Iranian government involvement in eliminating critics of the Islamic Republic.

by Maryam Jamshidi

Iranian musician, Shahin Najafi, has been called the “Salman Rushdie of music.” In the new documentary, “When God Sleeps,” which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City on April 20, 2017, that parallel is put to the test. It largely falls short – as do other simplified, superficial tropes the film deploys about the Isla…