Film Screening: There Is No Rain in Hell

*COVID-19 Protocols for Visitors: GW requires that all visitors aged 5 and older be up-to-date on their COVID-19 vaccines, (i.e. fully vaccinated and boosted, if eligible). To help streamline the verification process, GW has partnered with CLEAR Health Pass to provide an easy and secure way to demonstrate proof of vaccination. The masks are required. 

“A world in which peace is a fragment between two burials” 

The city stands in the apocalypse era: no location, no time. When a brutal war starts, all hell breaks loose. The only 8 people to survive are captives themselves in the old candle factory. They stare death in the eye and stand against it, not surrendering. Every single one of them protects something which represents a strand of life in a place where there is no sign of existence.                                

Film Director Statement 

Cinema offers the possibility to express what an innumerable number of words cannot.My desire with filmmaking is to address humanity—a truly timeless piece that speaks toanyone, regardless of where they are from. I want it to be relatable and comprehensible,independent from the race and belief system of the viewer. Borders separate humankind and bring all forms of judgement. In There Is No Rain in Hell you won’t find the film operating within distinct borders—rather, solely humans opposing each other during war and in particular from the point of view of innocent civilians. I never understood how humans want to rescue humanity by killing each other. We deceive ourselves when aiming to achieve peace with war, that’s why we always won in war but lost the peace. Given the current situation in Ukraine and other places around the world, I would like to give everyone a glimpse of the tragedy and the tremendous pain fellow humans must encounter from injustice and war. The movie is meant to create empathy and support relief measures. We all understand an injustice and should not remain silent when others are in pain.

The film will be followed by a Q&A session with the director.

Film Director

Zahra Shahhatami was born in 1987 in Tehran, Iran. She started her career as a writer from a very young age. When she was just 11 years old she wrote her first short film script and at age 15 her first feature-length film. Zahra worked with her father Ali Shahhatami, a well-known Iranian director, who produced her second feature screenplay, Flight of Ducks, when she was 18. In 2014, she decided to become a director and created her first 100-second film “Libertad.” Since moving to the USA in 2017, she has written, directed, and produced three additional short films (“Disenthralled,” “Umbra,” and “Saorsa”), all about the topic of women’s rights. In 2021, she completed her debut feature film, which was produced in collaboration with her father. There Is No Rain in Hell tells the story of war from an innocent civilian’s point of view.

The team dedicates this film to all people around the world who are victims of war, especially to the Ukrainian people. Let’s watch the film together and stand in the shoes of innocent civilians and see through their eyes: that’s how peace begins. At the screening you will be able to make donations to save lives.