{"id":106728,"date":"2023-09-09T17:00:44","date_gmt":"2023-09-09T15:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=106728"},"modified":"2023-09-04T18:47:10","modified_gmt":"2023-09-04T16:47:10","slug":"06-00-96","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=106728","title":{"rendered":"Israeli, Iranian Directors Talk About Making Historic, \u2018Risky\u2019 Movie About Female Iranian Judoka"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>Israeli, Iranian Directors Talk About Making Historic, \u2018Risky\u2019 Movie About Female Iranian Judoka<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/h5>\n

Shiryn Ghermezian<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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A scene from \u201cTatami.\u201d Photo: Venice Film Festival.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

A movie premiering at the Venice Film Festival that is the first feature co-directed by an Israeli and an Iranian filmmaker is a timely story that needs to be told despite tensions between the two Middle Eastern countries, according to the project\u2019s directors Guy Nattiv and Zar Amir Ebrahimi.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt took us five minutes to become best friends and family,\u201d Nattiv told The Hollywood Reporter<\/em><\/a> in a new interview about his relationship with Ebrahimi. \u201cWe eat the same hummus, the same pita, the same falafel. We listen to the same music. We love the same cinema. You meet the so-called enemy outside of Israel and it\u2019s like, \u2018Hey, I\u2019ve missed you in my life\u2019 \u2026 We were really on the same page about creative stuff.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Tatami<\/em> is about a female Iranian judoka named Leila \u2014 played by American Iranian- Chilean actress Arienne Mandi from The L Word<\/em> \u2014 who is competing for gold at the Judo World Championships, but is ordered by the Islamic Republic to fake an injury and lose or be labeled a traitor by her home country. Leila must decide if she will listen to Iranian authorities or continue competing for the gold medal. Ebrahimi \u2014 a Cannes Film Festival best actress winner for Holy Spider<\/em> \u2014 plays Leila\u2019s coach, Maryam, who tries to convince her to comply with the Iranian regime and leave the competition. Tatami a type of mat used during judo bouts.<\/span><\/p>\n

Nattiv, who recently directed Golda<\/em><\/a>, also co-wrote the script of Tatami<\/em> with Paris-based Iranian actress and screenwriter Elham Erfani and the film is produced by Israel\u2019s Keshet Studios. Ebrahimi further serves as the film\u2019s casting director. Iran and Israel have no diplomatic relations and Iran does not recognize the Jewish state. The Islamic Republic also has a long-standing policy<\/a> of not allowing its athletes to compete against opponents from Israel.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ebrahimi and Nattiv told The Hollywood Reporter<\/em> the film\u2019s storyline taps into the real-life struggles women currently face in Iran amid freedom protests about the mandatory hijab enforcement and following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was killed last year after allegedly being beaten by Iranian police when she was arrested for not wearing a hijab.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe just felt this sudden urgency of telling the story,\u201d Ebrahimi explained, saying that all the Iranians on the film\u2019s set got emotional when they filmed a scene where Leila removes her hijab. \u201cI think we all somehow felt like we were in this revolutionary time while making this movie,\u201d she added. The director and actress fled to Paris in 2008 and became a French citizen in 2017 after facing her own difficulties with Iranian authorities.<\/span><\/p>\n

She said when Nattiv reached out to her about making the film, it was a \u201cbeautiful offer.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI took a bit of time, because it\u2019s a very risky project for me, even as an exiled artist,\u201d she said to The Hollywood Reporter<\/em>. \u201cBut at some point I just thought, \u2018There is no reason to even think about it \u2014 I have to collaborate with him on this movie.\u2019\u202f\u201d She noted that the initial hesitation and fear she had of the Iranian regime, even while living in Paris, for joining the project is one of the big underlining messages in Tatami.<\/em> \u201cThis was exactly the story [Nattiv] wanted to tell,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that\u2019s how this first ever Israeli-Iranian collaboration was born, by just wanting to make something authentic, and give a voice to these female warriors,\u201d added Nattiv.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ebrahimi and Nattiv also talked about the \u201cemotional\u201d experience for both of them when Ebrahimi traveled to Israel, for the first time ever, to edit Tatami.<\/em> Ebrahimi said she \u201cfelt at home\u201d in Israel.<\/span><\/p>\n

Nattiv said in a previously released statement that Tatami<\/em> is \u201ca creative statement to the world as thousands of innocent Iranian people are paying with their lives for freedom.\u201d He told The Hollywood Reporter <\/em>it also pays tribute to the anti-government protests taking place in Israel regarding a judicial overhaul sought by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIsraeli democracy is in great danger, and I see correlation between Iran and Israel,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t recognize my country anymore.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Tatami<\/em> will make its world premiere in the Venice Film Festival\u2019s Orizzonti competition on Sept. 2, on almost the one year anniversary of when Amini was killed. The film\u2019s cast includes Ebrahimi\u2019s Holy Spider<\/em> co-stars Mehdi Bajestani and Sina Parvaneh alongside Jaime Ray Newman, Nadine Marshall, Lir Katz and Ash Goldeh.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Israeli, Iranian Directors Talk About Making Historic, \u2018Risky\u2019 Movie About Female Iranian Judoka Shiryn Ghermezian A scene from \u201cTatami.\u201d Photo: Venice Film Festival. A movie premiering at the Venice Film Festival that is the first feature co-directed by an Israeli and an Iranian filmmaker is a timely story that needs to be told despite tensions […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[26,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106728"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=106728"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106728\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":106839,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106728\/revisions\/106839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=106728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=106728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=106728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}