Post-Execution Punishment and the Politics of Help: Death Penalty, Patriarchal Power, and Restorative Failure in Ballad of a White Cow

This article examines Behtash Sanaeeha and Maryam Moghaddam’s Ballad of a White Cow as a critique of capital punishment, patriarchal power, and the failure of legal compensation. The film follows Mina, whose husband Babak is executed for murder and later found innocent. Rather than treating the narrative simply as a case of judicial error, this article argues that execution continues beyond the death of the condemned, shaping the social, economic, and psychological life of those left behind. It introduces two concepts: “post-execution punishment” and “the politics of help.” The first describes how punishment persists through stigma, poverty, and surveillance; the second shows how Reza’s assistance becomes another form of power because it conceals truth. The film ultimately suggests that justice without recognition and repair becomes violence [1-6]