My name is Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe.
Downloaded from YTS.MX
I am a hostage.
What they are putting me through is outrageous.
Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX
I haven't committed a crime.
I have spent nine months in solitary confinement,
spending every night away from my child.
I've never done any propaganda against the Iranian regime.
I am not a political person.
This should end.
I haven't done anything wrong. I need to go home.
This programme contains strong language
Daddy! Hello, hello!
Are you still in your pyjamas?!
Oh, hello.
Have you had your breakfast?
Yeah! Have you? Coco Cuffs.
Was it nice? Was it yummy?
OK, so are we going to get dressed?
Do you want to go and see Boris Johnson
dressed in your pyjamas?
No. No?
I think that's probably wise.
You've got to put your iPad in just in case.
We're taking a big bag of things.
I should carry that. Yeah, including scissors and knives,
so I don't think we're actually taking that.
I think you should wear...
..what you should wear...
..one of the dresses... Squeezy!
..that Mummy made. Huh?
Do you want to wear one of the dresses Mummy made?
Let me know.
Yeah. Oh, fine.
Fine.
It was, oh, the elephant one. Yeah.
NAZANIN: My darling Geesou.
You were born on the 11th of June 2014 London time
in a hospital in the north of the city.
Did you wash your face? Um...
No. Go wash your face.
Wash your face. Why? Why? Because you're meeting the Prime Minister.
Now, glasses.
Did you know that you spent your first hour of life
in your father's arms?
After more than two days of pain,
it was worth every second for the reward
of seeing your beautiful face.
Check again.
Your father and I were the luckiest people in the world.
It was only after your birth,
after we had to spend too long deciding when to have a child
that we realised just how we had been denying ourselves
such beautiful years.
We found them. Did you put them here secretly? No!
Put your glasses on.
I have sweet memories from the days we were together.
You found peace in your father's arms as he sang to you lullabies.
Excited? No. No?
So there's lots and lots of people.
All you do, is everyone says who they are, and they say hello.
And then the meeting's finished because it's only half an hour.
So we really want to say,
"Listen, how are you going to get Mummy home? What's your plan?"
Nothing. There might be.
Hopefully it's a better plan than that.
It's 22 minutes to nine.
The Prime Minister will meet Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe's
husband, Richard, today.
Nazanin was jailed in Tehran in 2016.
You're going to take your daughter with you to see the Prime Minister?
That's right. Potentially a brave move.
She'll go with me, in fact, I'm taking my mum, her granny as well,
in case her concentration goes.
Good morning, Richard.
Can we get a picture of the door, please, sir.
NAZANIN: My darling daughter.
My darling Geesou.
Those sweet and beautiful days didn't last long.
A trip to Iran in 2016 when you were 22 months was one of no return.
IN PERSIAN:
NEWSREEL: Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe,
who has dual British Iranian nationality,
was visiting family when she was detained
by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
It's not known why she was arrested.
Her daughter, Gabriella, is still in Iran with her grandparents.
Nazanin has been held in solitary confinement
on what Iran's Revolutionary Guard says
is an issue of national security.
I was due to meet her at the airport,
and I got a phone call
saying, "Listen, she hasn't caught the flight.
"Don't worry. There's just a problem with her passport.
"She'll be on a later flight."
And I didn't really listen beyond that.
It was probably a good ten days before we found out where she was,
established who it was that that had got her,
which was the Revolutionary Guard.
And that, for me, is when the wheels fell off.
I just, you know, realised that she was sitting in solitary somewhere
and I'd done nothing about it.
She was in a windowless cell, being interrogated, blindfolded.
Interrogation. Isolation. Interrogation. Isolation.
No change of clothes.
Food that was drugged.
She was being told, "Your family have abandoned you.
"You're never going to come out of this alive."
Just, you know, just trying to break you.
Being told, "Listen, your family's in danger.
"If you don't cooperate, we're going to kill them."
Nazanin can only call from prison when her interrogators let her.
She was supposed to call yesterday, but she didn't.
She might be about to call now.
She might be about to call now?
Yeah. This might be her now.
Azizam?
Hello?
Hello, my love. How are you?
How are you? Good.
I mean, all the better for hearing your voice, so.
So much.
Say it one more time.
Five years.
What's the crime that you've done?
What's the charge?
That's the sentence.
That's how many years for doing something.
What's the crime?
Yeah.
OK.
Yeah.
There is so much love for you here.
Yeah. Yeah, we have the petition.
It has 804,000 people have signed it.
I love....
I miss you so much and love you with all my heart.
And I promise you, you will be home soon.
You be strong.
I promise.
Love you.
All right, take care.
Nazanin was sentenced to five years.
She said that, um....
..you know, she hated waking up.
When she was asleep, in her dreams,
Gabrielle was there, and then when she woke up,
she was back in the prison.
So Gabriella was on holiday with her mum.
She was obviously at the airport travelling back
when Nazanin got arrested, but since the arrest,
she's been stuck in Iran, and she's living with Nazanin's family.
Geesou.
Geesou, mama.
SHE SPEAKS IN FARSI
My darling Geesou,
my share of you is only the occasional hour
in the visiting room at Evin Prison.
How young you are to be forced to go through such a horrible experience.
But I promise you that sad, sombre days of our separation
will be ended soon.
Give me your hand, my beautiful girl.
We will walk the rest of this path.
NEWSREEL: Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was on holiday visiting her family
when she was arrested and sent to prison for five years,
accused of trying to undermine Iran's government.
She totally denied the charges of conspiring
against the Iranian state.
Sleepy girl.
Here you go.
Do you want to...play with the ipad, watch some TV,
read a story?
Alexa.
You want to do Alexa? Do you? OK.
Play with my iPad. OK, you sit down.
Mummy should be calling in a minute.
PHONE RINGS Now?
Hello? Hello, how are you?
How are you doing, my love?
I'm all right. Any news from your lawyer or not?
No, no, no, nothing. Nothing.
As if I don't exist.
Geesou read her first book.
So she was very pleased.
She read her first book?
Yep. I Go Shopping, it was called.
It's called I Go Shopping.
As you might imagine, they go shopping
and look at things in the shop.
Oh, that's sweet.
That's adorable.
Yeah. Can you record it?
And then I can listen to it later on.
Just to see when she first started to read. How did she sound?
She was very pleased when she was able to do it without mistakes.
Oh, sweetheart.
Yeah, cause everyone is ahead of her in reading.
But that's right. Everyone's ahead of her still.
But she's ahead of many of them in many other things.
A point she made.
OK. OK. I got to go.
I love you so much. Love you.
I love you with all my heart.
With all my heart. I promise you it will be OK.
OK. Love you.
Love you.
I love you, sweetheart. Love you. Love you.
Hello?
I'm a woman and I am a mother.
What they are putting me through is outrageous.
When this all began, I went and met with three or four
different families that had been through it all.
They were actually clearly very knowledgeable.
And he said, "Well, I think given the context
"of what's being said and if you get out within three to six months,
"you've done well."
Revolutionary Guard put out quite a few propaganda videos.
It's just nonsense.
Here's a photo of her university friends claiming they're some
MI6 group and so on.
Bits where they've tried to dig out different things
from her personal email and posts on Facebook
and pretend they were something they weren't.
Boris Johnson spoke out and said...
When you look at what Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was doing,
it's just, you know, she was simply teaching people journalism,
as I understand it.
..which wasn't true.
What the fuck did you just do there?
That was fucking outrageous.
How did you allow that? How did you enable that?
That was used by the Iranian authorities.
There was so clearly a mistake that had so clearly
had consequences for Nazanin.
I remember being really struck by the craziness of our story.
Here you've got a mum on holiday, and they accuse her of being a spy.
I mean, of course she's not a spy.
There's nothing going on.
When we campaign, I've always tried to be as blunt as possible,
I'm pissed off that you've got my wife, and I want her home.
And I'm going to camp in front of your doorstep,
and I'm going to call it out.
I think it's so sad and so wrong that you should have been put,
and your wife, put in this situation.
I just wish you all the very, very best. Thank you.
NEWSREEL: Saturday, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe
began a hunger strike in protest at her continued detention.
I'm here in front of the Iranian embassy because Nazanin
has gone on hunger strike,
and I promised her that I would join her.
Yeah, I have to say, hunger strike is hard,
and this is one of the hardest day so far.
Richard, I'm a lecturer.
The Government put quite a lot of pressure on me to shut up.
The British Government essentially saying,
"Keep quiet. You're not helping your wife.
"You're making this worse."
There have been some moments where
I've really felt out of my depth.
I'm just an ordinary bloke.
Today we had comments from the Iranian Deputy Prime Minister
complaining about our hunger strike,
saying that Nazanin was not going to be released at all.
So similar to what the Interior said,
until she finished her sentence.
And also complained that I was blackmailing the Iranian authorities
by having this hunger strike.
Of course, that's entirely upside down,
but we're just the ones that are trying to find a way
to bring her home.
Partly why Nazanin was moved to go on hunger strike
is to signal, "Enough's enough, I need to come home with my daughter."
MUSICAL NOTES PLAY
Oh, is it like a piano?
When it all kicked off,
I couldn't really spend a lot of time in the flat.
It just felt too empty.
Are you eating watermelon?
I don't think so.
Is it for sharing with Daddy?
Ah! Mm-mm-mm!
Are you being kind to your uncle?
Yeah, she said... She said she doesn't like sharing.
Yeah, Mummy always accuses Daddy of not liking sharing.
We love you.
GABRIELLA: Love you. Love you.
Love you so much.
I love you.
INTERVIEWER: Is there a scenario
where Gabriella comes home and Nazanin doesn't?
Yes, there is.
Um, it's something we've been talking about.
Yes, it'd be tough.
It's tough for Nazanin in that what gets her through the week
is seeing Gabriella twice a week.
NAZANIN: My most beautiful baby girl.
Your visits and smiles make my world brighter.
I know we have been through dark years,
perhaps the darkest of our lives,
but we have had each other.
No-one can take us apart.
No politics, wars or even prisons.
No-one takes a mother and a baby
and thinks that's OK.
Someone said to me that there will be something.
There'll be something they want off the British Government.
And then we got that really strange message that said,
"Tell the British Government to make the agreement.
"They know... They know the agreement."
The Revolutionary Guard are doing it because they know it's a bad thing,
cos they think it'll work.
Suddenly, this is a lot darker,
a lot bigger than I appreciated.
I dug around and came across a big, long article
written by a guy called Duncan Campbell,
a journalist back in the eighties,
all about debt that the British Government owes to Iran.
The day I first read about what was happening to you,
it immediately occurred to me,
"This has got to be about the money."
At one stage 40 years ago,
there were 300 British military contracts under way with Iran.
700 people working,
servicing mostly that business.
NEWSREEL: Here at the factory in Leeds,
the entire production of Chieftain tanks is earmarked
for the Shah of Iran.
They're rolling off the line at the rate of five a week.
Nicely turned out in the Shah's own colour scheme
called Persian Drab.
The Shah wanted the new and latest tanks,
and the Ministry of Defence fell over themselves
and did a contract to sell the Shah 1,400 tanks
of an utterly advanced specification.
NEWSREEL: Britain's newest design of tank for Iran
will be more powerful and better protected
than any tank in the world,
with its top secret, extra tough armour.
These Chieftain battle tanks are part of a series of arms deals
with Iran that could eventually earn Britain more than £5,000 billion.
The UK had already taken £300 million from Iran
in advance payments to produce the tanks.
And then the day came.
The Shah fell.
CAR HORNS BEEP
Khomeini took over.
The contract was cancelled.
Iran wanted the money back.
Britain wanted to hang on to that money.
Looking across the records of these papers and the deals
that were struck,
Nazanin in arrest and in prison
is a direct result of British corruption 40 years ago.
MIKE CAREY: January '79.
The Iranian Revolution had just started.
SIRENS WAIL
It was complete chaos in Iran.
No-one knew what was going to happen.
I was the most junior person in the office
at the Ministry of Defence department concerned.
Back in those days,
it was quite common practice for lunchtime,
a lot of people would go to the pub, especially on Fridays.
And I was told, "Right, you're staying in the office
"while we go to the pub in case anybody phones."
Because you were a junior. Yeah.
Anyway, surprisingly, someone actually did ring
and on the end of the phone was the military attache
or one of his people from the Iranian embassy.
He started talking about this tank deal and said,
"We don't want the ayatollahs getting the tanks or the money,
"so everything's on hold."
And I asked him, "What do you want us to do with the money?"
And he said, "For now, nothing."
To hold on to it? Hold on to it.
And then the ayatollahs came fully into power.
And then obviously, when the Iranians discovered
that they were owed 400 million quid, unfortunately,
this when you come into the picture.
And Naz was just unfortunate
to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, I guess.
NAZANIN: I haven't committed a crime.
They have given me five years anyway.
I'm constantly told throughout the interrogation sessions,
every time anyone, any official came to prison that,
"We will not let you go until we get our money."
INDISTINCT CHATTER
Mohammed is Nazanin's brother.
All the time Gabriella was in Iran,
I would talk to Gabriella through him.
He would have to translate
cos obviously Gabriella lost her English and spoken Farsi.
When the decision was for Gabriella to come back to London,
the decision was he would bring her over
because he would be the one that could help her navigate.
Hello, hello!
Should we give it today or should we keep it for you?
THEY LAUGH
GABRIELLA: Dad? Yeah, baby?
For me, it was really important
that Gabriela came back here to start school.
OK, we need to go. Need to go.
Life does need to go on at some point.
I need to get a cab to school. It's fine.
Certainly at the beginning,
she regularly would say,
"Listen, I don't want you, Daddy. I want my granny,"
or, "I want Mummy, not Daddy."
PHONE RINGS
Hello. How are you?
You haven't left the house yet?
No, we're just doing our coats up.
Dad! OK.
I had a row yesterday.
That was a fight in the ward. Yep?
I've almost been paralysed,
and this stupid bitch started having a row
and somebody got involved,
and we all, like, had a huge, huge fight with her.
She just out of the blue called me...
CALL INTERRUPTED BY WARNING
Are you OK? Yeah, we're OK. We're OK.
Late for school but we're OK.
OK. I love you both.
Love you.
I really love you.
Love you. Bye-bye. Bye. Bye.
Bye-bye. Bye-bye.
Do you want to say bye-bye? Bye-bye.
She's gone. CALL DISCONNECTS
HE CLEARS THROAT
We're so late. We are going to be late.
Certainly those first few weeks were very tough for her.
She'd always been promised
that she was going to come back with Mummy.
And that's not what happened. She came back before Mummy.
See you later!
DOOR CLOSES
She will ask sometimes,
"Why did this happen to my mummy?"
And, of course, there is no good answer.
Actually Nazanin's fate is entirely bound up in the failure
to resolve this debt.
REPORTER: Today, the Court of Appeals hears arguments
about a debt that the UK has to Iran in case that could perhaps be linked
to Nazanin's freedom.
REPORTER: Iranians at the Appeal Court
claiming for arms deal payments dating back to the 1970s.
The latest twist in a legal battle worth £400 million.
This case has been on for ages.
It was secret for a long time.
Nazanin's held, she's been told, over this.
The guys that are holding Nazanin are a bunch of hostage takers.
They are threatening to take more people.
They have taken more people.
My husband was arrested in August 2017
when he went to Iran to visit his mother.
As he was walking along, a car pulled up and four men got out.
When he confirmed who he was,
they put him in a car and just covered his head with a hood.
That was it.
His case, as of other dual nationals,
may be related to this UK debt.
Obviously this is a long-running dispute between Iran and the UK.
Perhaps naively, we were hoping that might be sort of
instantly resolved in court and we'd get a judgment.
It's not about to happen.
REPORTER: In a court case in London today,
sanctions and a dispute are holding up payment for £400 million
Iran claims it's owed
for an arms deal dating back to the 1970s.
We have no comment on that.
Until we got the court papers,
I don't think we realised quite how obstructive
the British Government legal strategy was.
You know, in public saying,
"We're trying to negotiate this, we're trying to solve this."
None of it's true.
You've got a number of innocent people who are being held hostage.
You're trying to find every legal excuse you can to block this.
An awful lot of these letters is really just making sure
that no-one can say they didn't know the story.
This is the letter we wrote to Boris Johnson
when he was Foreign Secretary in March 2018.
This is after we'd started getting really clear messages about
what he was being held over, the debt.
We got a response back saying...
..acknowledgement of how upset Nazanin was,
saying how he cared about us, and then finally coming to the debt
and saying there's no connection.
We then wrote back again, clarifying that with respect,
"This isn't good enough, this is urgent.
"What have you done?"
Again, no acknowledgement to meet,
but reiterating that, "There's no connection between the two issues.
"The government is very keen to pay
"and that we will continue to push the whole case."
All the government's done is deflect attention away
from their failure to pay the debt.
I'm not sure I understand what could be justified there.
REPORTER: For Gabriella Zaghari-Ratcliffe,
no ordinary day out of school.
With her father and grandmother,
she's just been in to see the Prime Minister.
REPORTER: But while she may have got a toy to take home,
her father wants some decisive progress
to help get her mother back.
Richard Ratcliffe said he was pleased to have had the meeting,
but he clearly believes the government could be pushing harder.
I wonder who's going to call.
PHONE RINGS
I think that.. ..is Mummy.
..is Mummy. I've got it. I've got it.
Hello. Say hello.
NAZANIN: Hello...
Want to say salam?
In a loud voice.
Tell Mummy, what was it this week?
What did you do?
Larry. Larry.
She's gone.
Y-You're OK?
Yeah, I'm OK. I'm OK.
I'm very, very nervous today.
I've got butterflies in my stomach.
It was obviously a big week for us.
Uh-huh. Yeah. No, I think it went well.
Er, Boris Johnson was there. Dominic Raab was there.
Sometimes they try and shut down things.
So, you know, we start asking about the debt
and they won't want to talk about it.
They were open to talk about this is what's going on.
And I was pretty...
I mean, I did probe. I said,
"Listen, I know you say you want to solve it,
"but I've just been in court and I didn't see it looking
"like it was being solved at all."
And then the odd bit was that Boris Johnson didn't seem
to know that the court case was happening.
It felt quite a positive meeting in terms of the mood.
But in terms of substance,
we weren't really told anything.
OK. Yeah, we weren't.
How are you? How are you?
Let us hope. Yeah.
I love you so much. I've got to go.
CROSSTALK
Bye-bye, bye-bye, bye-bye.
Who would keep a mother away from her baby
for such a long time?
I am losing my faith in humanity.
I am losing my faith in human rights.
I do not have any faith of the Iranian government.
I'm losing my faith in anything that I could hold on to.
REPORTER: There have been more than 4,500 confirmed cases
of the coronavirus in China as of Monday.
900 cases were diagnosed in the city of Wuhan.
Iran is the worst-hit country in the Middle East
with the new coronavirus,
with nearly 16,000 confirmed cases and over 900 deaths.
On Wednesday, it really started to break across Iran
and there was sort of prisoners self-declaring they'd got it.
And then we got the news that they'd run out of bleach,
they'd run out of disinfectant. There was no medicine.
There were stories we'd been getting about
different prisoners having been hospitalised.
Nazanin said it was like, you know, a zombie movie.
In an effort to curb the spread of the virus,
Iran has temporarily released 85,000 prisoners,
some political prisoners.
Some breaking news to bring you.
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been released
from prison in Iran.
Nazanin's movements will be restricted to 300 metres
from her parents' home.
This makes her release more comparable to house arrest.
Nazanin will be required to wear an ankle tag.
Can you hear me?
Er, yes.
How are you today?
I've received so many messages from people.
This is Geesou's dress.
NAZANIN SPEAKS IN FARSI
Yeah.
INAUDIBLE
So... NAZANIN SPEAKS IN FARSI
No, it's a surprise!
Shall I bring it through?
Bring it through in a little bit? OK? I'll call you.
I'll call you back, OK?
Is it a nice dress?
It's beautiful!
Yeah!
Do you want to stand so Mummy can see?
Do you want to stand?
There we go.
Oh, my good...
Don't be shy. And red tights.
Mm-hm. And red tights.
NAZANIN GASPS
Oh, my God. So I think it'll look a nice photo.
You can dress up our daughter in a very, very nice way.
It's a little bit big for her, so she'll grow into it.
She'll grow into it, yeah.
So, Mummy's dresses - all oversized.
Er... NAZANIN SIGHS
Yeah, so, sorry I interrupted you.
I hate Friday evenings.
Er...
It's better than being inside prison.
Friday evenings in prison are lethal.
It has been exhausting.
Depending on which day I speak to her,
she could be happy.
Some days, really worried.
We've been kept in this game of cat and mouse.
She could be coming home any time soon.
She could be back in prison any time soon.
You know, we've got some posters.
You can choose which one you want to hold.
Free Anoosheh! Free Anoosheh!
Free Anoosheh!
Free Anoosheh! Free Anoosheh! Thank you.
Free Anoosheh!
ELIKA: So many families have been affected
by Iranian hostage-taking.
It doesn't just affect one life, it dominos.
It's really heartbreaking.
The most crucial years that she has to be with her mum,
she's been deprived of.
And that's not something you can reverse or take back.
I don't know what it must feel like for a six-year-old.
And the big one's going to be for me.
Yeah. And then I'm going to make another big one for Mummy.
The more, the better.
The less, the not better. Exactly.
NAZANIN: Yeah. Looking nice.
Hi, Mummy.
I want to see her on that side. Hello, sweetheart! OK.
I'm going to swing it round.
NAZANIN SPEAKS IN FARSI
Are we going to do some decorating on the biscuits? Yeah.
We have all these. Show these to your mum.
Father Christmas. And we're going to hopefully,
hopefully try and get some sent to you. Yeah.
So you get to eat some of them. Are you?
Yeah, so we're going to try and ask the Foreign Office
to see if they can take some if someone's going over.
BEEPING Oh, that's our cookies!
All of the things that she wants to do with me
when I come back is to bake. Wow, OK.
She's really good.
Oh, wow! That is a very special one!
Thank you so much, sweetheart!
Elika's going to get the penguin.
Yay, that's my favourite! And then Mummy's going to get the...
The Father Christmas.
When do you miss your mum the most?
At night. At night?
Why?
Because I cry about it.
Why do you cry?
Because I want her home.
So... For us, it's dangerous to get too hopeful.
We need to keep our guard up.
It really could suddenly all get solved,
and it could suddenly get worse.
Hi, Foreign Secretary. How are you?
Nazanin this morning got called by the Revolutionary Guard.
And then, at about three o'clock this afternoon,
she was visited by two IRGC guys who handed over a court summons,
which said, "You need to come in court on Monday,
"you should pack a bag because you'll be
"going to prison afterwards."
So that's obviously hit her and us pretty hard.
Yeah, I've had a couple of really quite dark conversations
with her since.
I'm sure that's a clear threat by the Revolutionary Guard,
that we can be big and scary.
Thank you. Thanks very much.
Bye-bye.
It's done.
he just gave me half an hour of rationalisations.
You know, "Terribly sorry."
Yeah, look at the Foreign Office. I mean, what have they done?
Have they come to an understanding whereby Nazanin
gets to serve her sentence and, at the end of it,
she gets released?
Has the IRGC agreed to it?
No.
How has that changed where we were in 2016?
Well, not one bit.
We're in exactly the same place.
It's almost like we're a country of eunuchs.
They've got Boris and there's Raab talking every week,
let's say, about the case and how worried they are,
but actually doing nothing useful to solve it.
That's Nazanin.
She's asking me to tell you...
Yes, she's sent me a message.
I'll...
Hello.
No, I-I...
I mean, if I'm honest, I think you probably have to go to court.
I think they want to make you scared.
And they will do things to genuinely make you scared.
I haven't slept at all last night.
God knows how I'll be sleeping tonight.
I am so worried.
I almost want to have a God-sent prophet
to tell me,
"Nazanin, everything will be OK.
"They are just scaring you.
"You will not go back to prison.
"The only journey you'll be making will be to see your daughter
"and husband, and to get to hold them."
Does Geesou know that I'll go back to prison?
She...
..knows that I've been doing all these interviews,
so I don't know what she's listened to.
But I haven't told her. Did you want to tell her
or do you want me to tell her? No.
I don't think we actually should.
But nothing's actually changed in terms of where you are.
You are still...? Yeah.
And still can't come home yet.
So, yeah, I mean, I'll probably answer honestly
the questions she asks.
But, yeah, I mean...
Let me have a think about it. Yeah.
She hates me?
No, she's busy on Minecraft.
Are you OK, yeah?
No, I'm just.
INDISTINCT SPEECH
These are tough days.
What we're seeing is the Revolutionary Guard
not being happy with how things are progressing,
making it clear that they've got the capacity to cause trouble,
they've got the capacity to cause suffering.
OK, so, these two are missing...
Hello! We want to show you our Christmas tree!
Yeah, yeah.
So, Mummy, this is you.
Show me. The yellow one.
NAZANIN GASPS
Actually, that is the best place for it. Isn't it good?
And this one is me.
The blue one. Yes, me.
Oh. Oh! Are you looking forward to your birthday?
I want her to be... I want her to be 20-something.
20-something. To be honest, my heart
is like a 27-year-old lady.
Like, I'm so young in my heart.
And pretty.
I'm good looking. I've got a very good body.
All right, all right, all right, all right!
LAUGHTER
And then, what do you want to do on your birthday, Mummy?
If you come back in time?
Should we go ice skating?
I want to play this!
We could... I've never been ice skating.
That's not true. That's so not true.
Well, I don't know how to skate. Last Christmas.
I do not know how to skate. Last Christmas, we went ice skating.
# Last Christmas, I gave you my heat. #
Do you know that song? Do you remember this song?
How does it go, then?
# The very next day... # What happens?
# You have it away. #
Love you both. Love you, Mummy.
Thank you for admiring our Christmas tree.
Wait a second. Wait a second. Love you.
Bye-bye. Love you. Love you. Bye-bye.
Bye-bye. Love you. Bye-bye. Love you.
This is my favourite thing. Bye-bye. Love you.
Bye-bye. Bye-bye.
All good.
They have taken her to court. He adjourned the case.
It felt a very clear sort of negotiating tactic.
Clear signal to the UK:
"We can lock her up if we want to, but we don't want to."
ON TV: Come on.
Don't be scared. I won't bite.
She's a brave one, ain't she?
NAZANIN SPEAKS IN FARSI
The UK Government is not really helping me.
I am a political pawn.
Victim of...
..something which did not have anything to do with me.
And I am still paying the price for it.
I have not cuddled my daughter for years.
If the money and the debt belongs to Iran,
why doesn't the UK pay that off?
Just pay it.
Please, please, please, just pay it.
Gabriella was one and three quarters when her mum was taken from her.
She didn't get to celebrate her second birthday
or her third birthday or her fourth birthday with her parents.
BOTH: Rock, paper, scissors, shoot.
Yes! D'oh!
For her fifth birthday, she was able to have a party
in prison with her mum.
When it was your fifth birthday... Hmm.
..what did you do?
Did Mummy organise a party?
What was the theme?
Uni... It was a unicorn, it wasn't donkey.
It was unicorn. Unicorn.
Was there a cake? Was there a cake, actually?
What kind of cake?
A unicorn cake. A unicorn cake, really?
That day, I couldn't...
I couldn't...
I couldn't say bye-bye to Mummy.
I remember Mummy saying that - they wouldn't let you say bye-bye,
and they said it was all finished and, "You have to go".
And you got sad.
And then they took me over,
and then I said bye-bye.
But they took me upstairs where the prisoners were.
Oh, to say goodbye to Mummy up there? Yeah.
One of the soldiers carried me. OK.
He was a kind one. OK, nice. Nice.
Dear Gabriella, my little girl,
after all this time apart,
I want to confess on your fifth birthday
that there is sometimes little I know about you,
even less I know about motherhood.
I asked you where you wanted your birthday this year.
"In prison," you said, "so, Mummy, you can come."
On Sunday, we had a cake and sang Happy Birthday
and drew pictures of unicorns.
You lit up the visiting room,
until it was time to go.
Your tears were so full.
They stayed with us all.
Nothing is worth your tears,
my gorgeous unicorn girl.
Actually, what's been taken away is that childhood of being together.
She does remind me of Geesou at that age, actually.
Your favourite cousin!
Geesou, do you want to film some of your friends for Mummy?
This is Gabriella's mummy on the phone. Is it?
PEOPLE TALK INDISTINCTLY
ALL: # Happy birthday, Gabriella
# Happy birthday to you. # ALL CHEER
She's making a wish.
Very good.
GIRL: Look, Gabriella.
Nazanin is missing Gabriella growing up.
She just misses her.
And for Gabriella, as she's got bigger,
she's sort of rationalised it in different ways.
It's not every night that she'll ask, "When's Mummy coming home?",
but it's still very often,
particularly when tired and crying,
and she'll want Mummy and want Mummy to come home
and doesn't want mum that...
..that's a phone mum, she wants a real one.
I love you, baby. Are you going to say bye to Mummy? Bye.
Love you! I said bye-bye!
No, come and say bye properly. Bye.
Come and say... Come and see Mummy. Geesou?
You haven't really talked to me properly
over the past couple of days
because you have been busy doing Minecrafting.
Mummy, you were busy. You should... You have to call me.
No... I'm calling you.
Every time I call you,
you say that you're busy doing Minecraft, and I'm sad.
Look, do you want to see Mummy's face?
How sad she is? Like this?
She's not actually sad.
If I make her laugh... When I look at that face...
If I make her laugh, she will laugh.
She's not actually sad!
She is. She isn't. She is. She isn't.
She is. She isn't.
Come and say goodbye. She isn't, I win!
I'm going to be slightly confined in what I can say on an open line.
So, the first thing to say is we got quite close to resolution.
There was a window of opportunity, um, but it closed.
But, having said that, we got closer than we've been before.
Like, we get this shadow play where we don't know what's happening
on the debt, but we do know what happens to us.
You repeated the government are looking to pay the debt.
As you know, we don't understand why it hasn't been paid.
And just to be clear,
the continued non-payment is definitely seen by Iran
as a badwill gesture.
So, in this goodwill dynamic,
that seems to be a real stumbling block.
I totally get it.
Look, we are committed to getting it resolved.
I can't tell you more of the detail, but, look, you're absolutely right
that the Iranians, they've been very clear at various different points.
That's part of their thinking.
The...the reality is, Richard,
and I, again, I can say more in person,
we're doing everything we can to make sure
that we clear the path to get Nazanin home.
CALL END TONE
What is going to happen?
Am I going to be in the same position with a tag on
until they pay the fucking debt?
They just don't want to tell us.
And so that's why we've got this, sort of, you know,
kind of bullshit conversation.
I just hate this ankle tag. Take the fucking tag off.
I'm just going to cut it.
I think...
I think... If they're going to take me back to prison, fuck it,
they will take me back to prison.
I don't give a shit.
I'll just cut it out tomorrow morning.
It's not a decision to make while we're angry,
just after a phone call.
I've done my period - five years, I can come home,
for the fucking debt.
I'm not going to pay the price for it.
I hate it.
Might as well just go and die.
It'll be OK.
It will. You've told me that for five years, Richard.
I'm not going to buy that. Um...
I promise you it will.
A lot of our campaigning is
complaining about the British government,
but they're not the primary bastards here.
CAMERAMAN: Just up the top here for me, please.
CAMERAMAN 2: This way, please. Thank you.
OK, we're up.
Good job.
Well, she enjoyed that, right?
The guys who have taken Nazanin and have tortured her
and have held her for five years have never opened the door
to explain why they abducted her.
Are the guys inside that embassy?
Uh-huh.
OK.
OK. Well, I'll try my luck and ring the bell, if that's all right.
Even...
Can they prevent me?
I'm going to... I'm going to try.
DOORBELL RINGS
Hi, this is Richard Ratcliffe.
INTERCOM LINE CUT
DOORBELL RINGS
POLICEMAN:Yeah, we... DOORBELL RINGS
The idea I can't ring their doorbell,
I mean, fuck that.
I don't often get angry,
it just brought back what bastards they are.
And the fact that they wouldn't receive it, I just had to post it,
it was like, "Fuck you, mate."
We have paid a very high price
for the disputes between governments.
NAZANIN: These days, I am a lonely mother.
I was left behind with my repeating,
while outside passes by and on.
Tears my food, fears filling my mind.
Solitude too often my friend,
and doubt my relentless foe.
What if they never let me go?
Laughter becomes my past,
sorrow only my present,
and hope on a horizon hard to see.
REPORTER: The husband of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe,
the British-Iranian woman held in Iran, has gone on hunger strike
for the second time in two years.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who spent five years in prison
or under house arrest, lost her latest appeal a week ago.
Richard Ratcliffe is staging the action
outside the Foreign Office,
accusing the government of inaction and failure over her case.
Last week, Nazanin was given a new conviction, lost her appeal.
All of a sudden, it's very clear
she's going to be put in prison quite soon.
I do feel that the Government's strategy is broken.
It does feel like a policy of waiting,
and, you know, we can't wait forever.
Ay-ya-ya!
PHONE RINGS
You OK?
Very stressed out. Hmm.
I'm thinking about what you might be going through. Hmm.
RICHARD MUMBLES Are you dressed up suitably?
Yeah. But, not eating, you will feel the cold quicker.
Yeah. Can you drink, like, hot water? Yes.
Yeah. Maybe I'll treat myself to a cup of hot water.
I don't want to lose you. RICHARD CHUCKLES
That is the main point.
I want you to be safe and sound without the tummy.
RICHARD CHUCKLES
You can get rid of the tummy, I don't mind that. Anything else...
..smile, skin, hair,
I'm not going to accept that. Try to keep my hair.
It's thinning out.
I love you so much. Love you.
It'll be OK. Keep warm.
Will do. Love you. Love you.
Love you. Bye-bye. Bye.
My daughter, Gabriella,
lives with my husband in London.
I want the Iranian government to show mercy.
I want the British government to do all they can.
And I want this ordeal to end
so that I come back home to my baby and my husband
that I haven't seen for the past five years.
We've had what now?
It's five foreign secretaries, three prime ministers.
Three US presidents.
Hello. Hi, how are you?
Well done. Amazing, what you're doing.
So, how's Nazanin?
You said not... She's not so great at the moment.
She was really...
She'd kind of gotten lulled into that sense
that it's all about to be solved.
Yeah. Twice, actually.
Yeah. And poor Nazanin...poor Liz, gave her quite a hard time
the first call. Right.
Yes, exactly.
She's out.
Yeah.
Hmm.
Anoosheh and the others.
It is really horrible watching your child on hunger strike.
But I understand why he's doing it, and I will support him.
When they keep telling us,
"Oh, things are being done...
"..behind the scenes..."
..nobody will tell us actually what is being done.
And we're not that stupid.
I cross the swirling storms of Iran.
That lonely days of separation will pass,
that rolls forward,
that beyond the pale sun, injustice will become a shadow,
and their trees of solitude will blossom again
in this sky beyond the yard.
Have you got post?
Richard? Yes, that's me.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Thank you. Thank you.
It's a snood. Ah, so we do.
One of the very sad bits is watching Naz watching us
bringing up her little girl.
That must be so horrific for Naz.
BAGPIPES PLAY
I thought you were going to stop.
I thought you were going to stop today.
WHISPERS:
PEOPLE TALK INDISTINCTLY
And then you'll go and do some fun stuff, like eat something.
I haven't seen you for a very, very long time. Long time.
Look at how hairy I am, huh?
I love that.
Yeah. Geesou, shall I keep the beard?
No!
MAN SHOUTS ORDERS
Good to see you. Well done, all of you. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Pray for you. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you.
I just think what you're doing is absolutely extraordinary.
And as much as it matters, I give you complete and utter full support.
I think you're an extraordinary human being.
I just wanted to say that my thoughts are with you...
Thank you. ..and I hope you're OK and I really hope this ends.
Thank you.
I hope you get your mummy back soon.
I think we've made them look bad. Oh, you have.
I think that may be fair, yes. LAUGHTER
That was the point.
Erm...
..haven't got them to move, but...
..that fight continues.
# Round yon Virgin, Mother and... #
What I would say to everyone across the House,
my constituent, Richard Ratcliffe, went on hunger strike
because he felt this was his absolute last resort.
There is no doubt that we owe Iran 400 million,
and it should be given back.
Why is the Prime Minister
still refusing to settle a £400 million debt?
Nazanin and her family have been subjected to the utmost cruelty.
This is not ransom money.
It is a historic debt that we owe to Iran.
ON SPEAKERPHONE: So, I just received a call,
"You're going to have to bring your passport, whatever, today.
"You're going home tomorrow morning."
I'm like, "Fuck you." They're like, "No, no, no, no, no.
"We're going to send you home tomorrow morning.
"So, that means that we need to discuss some stuff with you -
"what to do, what not to do." The Revolutionary Guard have said, "Listen, you need to come to us"?
Yeah, and they just want to have to find out about it.
I don't want her to hear this. OK. OK.
We'll go... I'll go to another room.
OK. OK.
The key blockage in it always has been the Revolutionary Guard.
She is their asset.
They've made that clear all the way through.
Until all factions of the Revolutionary Guard have signed off,
I don't think she comes home.
What, he's going to take you to the Revolutionary Guard? Yeah.
She and the Ambassador have gone down to the RGC,
and they had said to her, "You'll be travelling tomorrow."
Is she packing?
I think, as we speak, she is chatting to the Revolutionary Guard.
The main task now would be to get out safely, wouldn't it?
Yes.
Well, it feels like we're a big step closer. I think so.
Yeah, I think so.
Erm, I got a phone call to say Mummy might be coming back soon.
Do we want to go to the airport to meet her?
And do we want to stay in a place overnight?
What do you mean? We're staying in the airport?
Well, I'm guessing in a hotel rather than the airport, but...
Can I see the hotel? I don't think you can choose it... Oh.
..but I think what you can do is choose some clothes.
Yeah, but, wait - what about if it's all a trick?
How do you mean it's all a trick?
Like, what happens if Mummy's not coming back?
Did I tell you we've been offered a safe house?
Like, there's literary a Foreign Office car
parked outside our door, waiting to take us...
Really? ..whenever we want to.
Did you accept? I have. I have accepted.
I'm waiting for Gabrielle to finish school
and for your brother to come back from work.
Lovely. Do we have to take him, too? Erm, I have...
Oh, my God! I have agreed to take him.
THEY LAUGH
I want Mummy to come back home!
I know. I know. Well, that's what we're going to pack.
So, my vote... Can I bring two? Both? Thank you.
LAUGHTER So, that's three dresses?
Daddy, look.
It's good, isn't it?
Mohammed and I were discussing tidying up the flat,
and we haven't done it yet cos we don't want to over-tidy.
LAUGHTER
The flat is tidy, Richard!
ON SPEAKERPHONE: She's going to be upset anyway, isn't she?
She's going to be up and down, so that's a good, tangible thing,
that you've all messed up her nice house. Yeah.
Please, you three keep safe, as well. We will. We will.
Do I need to come to the safe house to make sure it is safe?
No, I... It is.
I'm sure it's safe.
The stuff that's in here is obviously active campaigning stuff.
It's gotten better, but there's still...
..a big mess here.
OVER SPEAKERPHONE: Are the bathrooms, erm, cleaned,
erm, in a male standard or a female standard?
The bathroom is reliably lived in. That's a euphemism.
Cleaning this stuff. Mm. Yeah, she's coming soon, hopefully.
So, Nazanin has been taken to the airport,
and that's the last I've heard from her directly.
Family aren't allowed in there, so the family have sort of lost contact with her.
Yeah, we're excited and, you know, stressed
because they couldn't say a proper goodbye.
Daddy, was that good?
That's really good, isn't it?
"¤530 million of blocked Iranian money,
"before releasing her,
"has been transferred to Iranian accounts.
"Nazanin was handed over to the British team..."
The Iranian Revolutionary Guard brought that forced confession in.
They brought it back saying, "You need to sign this." She refused to.
An hour later, the Foreign Office brought it in
and said, "You have to sign this."
So, the Foreign Office has got Nazanin
to sign a false confession for the Revolutionary Guard,
which is bonkers.
It's just absolutely bonkers.
And I'm presuming it's just to get it over the line
and, you know, "It doesn't matter. Let's just get this done."
Things moving forwards.
That's just a picture of Nazanin having got on the plane.
Erm, and still not feeling it,
so I'm still trying to keep calm and wait.
It's obviously pretty close now, but until it's taken off,
not sitting on the runway for three hours
for some air traffic control game...
Daddy, am I allowed to cut my hair myself?
Erm, you can ask that question to Mummy when she gets back.
Loads of people on Twitter wishing luck,
you know, sending greetings.
So? Yeah.
It's just six years.
It's not...
Six years, you know?
Sorry. What do you mean "sorry"?
Sorry for what? Sorry I'm not able to talk.
HE SNIFFLES
So?
No! Stop! "Stop!" Stop!
What a miserable, wet day, huh?
Richard, are we all right to use the pictures?
Over here, by the...
For all of us here, it feels like a moment in history,
but what does this mean to your family?
Well, I suppose that we can stop being a moment in history
and start being a normal family again.
There we go.
CAMERA SHUTTERS CLICK Thank you.
That's true. Mummy's coming back on a rainy day, isn't she? Not a sunny day.
So, we're in a car now on our way to the airport,
and she's arriving in just over an hour.
So, tired, but I think we're excited.
How are you feeling?
Are you going to answer?
Is that Mummy? Yeah. Yeah, I think.
Yeah, that's Mummy. Quickly down those steps, isn't she?
Obviously cold.
Mummy!
Hey! That's Mummy!
Hello, Mummy!
NAZANIN SOBS
SHE SPEAKS IN FARSI
Can you remember your Farsi? THEY LAUGH
Let me kiss Daddy, too.
SHE SPEAKS IN FARSI I don't understand!
You're so beautiful!I know. THEY LAUGH
Nazanin.
INDISTINCT CHATTER
SHE SPEAKS IN FARSI
Subtitles by Red Bee Media