The Guilty

I had never heard of The Guilty prior to this class, but I was immediately intrigued when watching it. Most of the film takes place inside a call center, and the main events are never shown only heard through a phone. That choice alone made the experience feel intimate and intense. Like Asgar, I watched the movie completely alone in a near pitch black room. I believe the darkness of the space he moves into is meant to represent how he’s left in the dark about the case about Iben, about Michael, about the truth. That visual metaphor really stuck with me. It’s incredible how much detail can be inferred from a call. I could picture the entire movie in my head: the faces of the kids, the mother, the father, the rooms they’re in, the tension in their voices. I was completely surprised when I learned that the father wasn’t evil. In fact, it was Iben the mother who had killed her child. It was an accident. She didn’t mean to. She’s very mentally unwell, and I was on the edge of my seat when I thought she had committed suicide. I thought Asgar admitting to what he did was incredibly powerful, especially considering he has his own court case the next day. The implications of that moment his honesty, his vulnerability were huge. I could see how angry he was getting: smashing the keyboard, calling Michael a goddamn pig. But I’m glad he apologized. I’m glad Michael is okay. I’m glad Iben is going to get the help she needs and didn’t take her own life. I like to think that after Asgar walks out that door the next day, he tells the judge what he told Iben. And honestly, I think he already has changed for the better. Do you think Asgar was fair in the assumptions he made? To me, it felt justified in the moment almost absolute given the information he had. It reminded me of 12 Angry Men, where the jurors start with a strong belief in guilt based on surface level evidence, but gradually uncover deeper truths. Asgar didn’t have the full picture, but his urgency and emotional investment made his assumptions feel real and necessary.