"Iran's future? I am optimistic for the new generation, but it will be a long process. Much has already happened or is happening because women are becoming increasingly aware of their rights such as having control over their own bodies, being able to wear what they want etc..., but it must still be said that the laws and regulations are still against them. Even if today some men have begun to understand that they no longer have the right to do certain things".
Zar Amir, co-director together with the Israeli Guy Nattiv, and actress of the film Tatami said it this morning in Rome, at the cinema with Bim from 4 April.
In the film already in Venice in 2023, the story of the Iranian judoka Leila (Arienne Mandi) and her coach Maryam (Amir), who at a certain point receive an ultimatum from the Islamic Republic during the world championship in Tbilisi (Georgia) which orders the athlete to fake an injury and lose the race, under penalty of being branded as a traitor to the State.
Seeing her freedom and that of her family threatened, Leila, who has a husband and a son in Iran, finds herself facing a truly difficult choice.
"When I saw Holy Spider I was struck - says Nattiv (2019 Oscar winner for the short Skin) -. Zar (who won the Best Performance Award at Cannes 2022 for this film), is a force of nature and I I immediately understood that she was right for the part of Maryam, the coach. Within a short time she became our casting director and then I proposed that she make her debut behind the camera."
And again the director: "I wrote the screenplay together with Elham Erfani before the outbreak of the women's revolution and we were inspired: by athletes like Sadaf Khadem, the first Iranian boxer who took refuge in France where she became a promoter of women's rights Another heroic Iranian athlete was the rock climber Elnaz Rekabi who competed without wearing a hijab, as well as Kimia Alizadeh, Iranian taekwondo prodigy during the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, who opted to defect together with her husband due to government threats. Zar and I made this film inspired by real people, but never in a million years did we imagine that the women's revolution would become so significant."
Zar Amir instead says of the protagonist Arienne Mandi: "She is not only the heroine of the film but also our personal heroine. The work she has done on a physical level is extraordinary, so much so that she actually faced all the encounters with real judo professionals ".
And it doesn't end there for the Iranian actress: together with Golshifteh Farahani they will star in the film adaptation of Azar Nafisi's Iranian bestseller, Reading Lolita in Tehran.
In the end,
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