Every day, a personality invites themselves into the world of Élodie Suigo. Wednesday, September 4, 2024: Iranian actress and director Zar Amir. Her new film directed with Israeli Guy Nattiv, “Tatami”, is released today.
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Zar Amir Ebrahimi is a superstar actress. She was born in Tehran, Iran. She received the Best Actress Award at Cannes in 2022 for her role in the film The Nights of Mashhad by Ali Abbasi. In 2008, she went into exile in France after being sentenced to prison and 100 lashes in Iran following the theft of an intimate video of her. Going into exile was an act of resistance, of survival. Since today, Zar Amir is in front of and behind the camera in Tatami that she made with the Israeli director, Guy Nattiv. It is a hard-hitting, sublime, painful film, a cry from the heart and of hope. It is the story of a judoka and her coach participating in the world championships. Leila, the athlete and Maryam, the coach are invited, under threat, to leave the competition so as not to have to face an Israeli opponent.
franceinfo: Tatami is a film that hits very, very hard. It is a look that is violent, that is realistic on the conditions of Iranian women in the context of sports competitions. You made it with an Israeli director. How did you want to collaborate, to propose this image that is taken from several true stories?
Zar Amir: The original idea came from Guy. I was attached to this project as an actress to play the role of the coach and then as I had a lot of ideas to add to make it much deeper, we became quite close. One evening, he called me and offered me this collaboration. That’s when I took my time to think about how two directors, with their egos, their vision, could work together. An Iranian and an Israeli, it was rather a historic collaboration. I didn’t really know Guy, his thoughts behind all this. We were quite close on everything that was artistic and aesthetic, but also on our vision of world politics, especially in the Middle East and everything we both experience.
How do you relate to this film that deals with Iranian women? You were born in Tehran, you had to leave your country, but what does Iran represent today and what is your vision of women and the obstacles they face on a daily basis?
I have been living in France for almost 17 years. More and more, I feel French, but I also feel Iranian. I am starting to be quite proud of this generation of people, I don’t just want to talk about women, but especially women… I think they have suffered so much oppression and pressure from this government, that today they are all a source of inspiration for the whole world and for me too. It gives me hope. I think they are capable of changing their lives. They are determined.
“There are Iranian women who are suffering in prison, they are still fighting for their freedom. I am quite proud and they inspire me a lot.”
You arrived in France in 2008. An intimate video had been stolen from you. You were sentenced to prison and 100 lashes. Was it a strong act to come to France? Was it also a way to fight against that?
Yes. The reality is that I didn’t want to leave at all. I could have left the same evening when I got this news, but I decided to stay and fight for my life, my career, my friends, my colleagues, my parents, for everyone. After a year, I saw very clearly that I could no longer work, with the court. I told myself that I was going to end up in prison and get whipped. It’s so medieval that I couldn’t even imagine myself in those conditions. I think that for all the exiled people who left to have this freedom to fight and express themselves, I believe that there is always a kind of regret. We always tell ourselves that we had to stay, that we had to try there, but for some people, it’s impossible. Ending up in prison is useless, you have to get out. Me and a lot of others, especially in my circle, filmmakers, at least carry the voice of the people who are there.
“We have to be at peace. We have to be friends, we have to understand each other, we have to discover each other. We have to leave this space.”
Is sport or even cinema a solution to move things forward?
You have to be hand in hand, arm in arm and try not to be manipulated by this power. If there was not this conflict in my film, Tatamibetween Maryam and Leila, how could this power actually exist? And that’s the story in the Middle East. I’m not a politician, but with everything I’ve experienced at 40, I can say that they both need this conflict to exist. And we have to be wise, we have to be together. I hate sending messages with my films, but if there is a message in this collaboration with Guy Nattiv who now lives in the United States, it’s that we are both critical of our governments.