A film co-directed by an Israeli and an Iranian, a ray of hope in times of crisis

In the midst of the crisis in the Middle East and as the long Olympic and Paralympic news comes to a close, the story of the film resonates singularly.

A very rare collaboration: the film Tatamiby Guy Nattiv and Zar Amir Ebrahimi, in theaters Wednesday, September 4, is the fruit of the unprecedented cooperation of two filmmakers from irreconcilable enemy countries, Iran and Israel.

This feature film, carried by a black and white which is not without evoking Raging Bull (Martin Scorsese, 1980) tells the story of an Iranian judoka, Leila: while she already sees herself winning the gold medal, during the world championships in Georgia, she refuses to comply with her government’s ukase ordering her to abandon the tournament so as not to have to face an Israeli athlete. Her coach, the former champion Maryam, herself upset by this type of diktat that she has experienced in the past, has difficulty reasoning with her judoka. In the midst of a crisis in the Middle East and as the long Olympic and Paralympic news comes to an end, the story of the film resonates singularly.

The impossibility for an Iranian athlete to consider a fight against an Israeli athlete can be explained by the logic of the mullahs’ regime: “I learned at school that Israel does not exist”Zar Amir, Iranian actress and co-director of the film, told AFP. “So we are not allowed to work together, meet, befriend or compete with this imaginary enemy.”she explains.

The project was initiated by Israeli director Guy Nattiv, a noted author of Skin (2018) and Golda (2023) with Helen Mirren, is alone at the controls. He addresses Zar Amir, actress winner of the interpretation prize at Cannes in 2022 for her role as a pugnacious journalist in Ali Abbasi’s thriller, The Nights of Mashhad because he plans to call on her for the role of the coach. It is following their discussions that she is also associated with the production.

Born in Tehran, Zar Amir now lives in exile in France and is therefore “free to choose these subjects”that she has “responsibility” to tell: the film, she said, “will also have a political dimension but that is not my problem”. “In Iran, filmmakers cannot really tell the truth, they can work (on these subjects) but it will always be only half the truth”she laments, while Tehran has already targeted and detained directors accused of propaganda against the regime, such as Jafar Panahi and Mohammad Rasoulof. The latter fled the country clandestinely just before the last Cannes Film Festival, to take refuge in Europe.

Guy Nattiv explains that the film has caused a lot of discussion in Israel because “People, I’m not talking about the government, see this collaboration as something revolutionary“. “I hope the film will pave the way for other collaborations between Israelis and Iranians in other fields such as music”concluded Guy Nattiv during an interview in September 2023 when the film was presented at the Venice Film Festival.