An Iranian judoka is preparing to compete in the world championships. She is well on her way to winning the gold medal, but to do so, she risks having to face an Israeli athlete. The Iranian regime is opposed to this, and asks her to withdraw, which she refuses. Despite the threats, the increasingly strong intimidation against her, against her family, she will resist the orders of the regime and continue the competition. The film Tatamia political and sports thriller, presented at the Venice Film Festival, is released in theaters on September 4. It was co-directed by the Franco-Iranian Zar Amir and the Israeli Guy Nattiv: a “historical collaboration”said Zar Amir, in the context of renewed extreme tensions in the Middle East.
“Sport, like cinema, has always been used by the powers that be as propaganda to put pressure on people who have a strong voice, and whose action can inspire others”observes the actress and director, winner of the Best Actress award at Cannes in 2022 for The Nights of Mashhadwho has been living in exile in Paris for fifteen years. In Tatamishe plays the role of the coach, charged by the regime with convincing the young judoka, played by the American-Iranian actress Arienne Mandi, to give up.
Inspired by true events
The story of Tatami is inspired by true events. Several high-level athletes – an Iranian taekwondo para-athlete, Algerian and Egyptian judokas – recently refused to face an Israeli opponent. “We grew up in schools where the name Israel was never mentioned, remembers Zar Amir. For Iran, Israel does not exist. But I think that today, a large part of the Iranian people are aware of being manipulated. The mullahs’ regime and the Israeli government need this conflict, but the peoples are so similar, we could be brothers and sisters. We have to stay hand in hand, otherwise we will be eaten by the power, we must not let ourselves be done. With my film, I wanted to convey a message of peace and friendship.”
“The desire to live free”
Resisting the regime is a choice that Zar Amir herself had to make. In the 1980s, when she was a star in Tehran, notably thanks to her role in the series Nargessher career is abruptly interrupted when a man publishes an intimate video of her on the Internet, a “sex tape”. She endures six months of traumatic interrogations, is forced to answer questions about her private life in a court composed entirely of men and ends up being sentenced to 100 lashes. Life becomes impossible, she is afraid of being stoned in the street. Reluctantly, she decides to flee. “I am fortunate to be able to put my traumas into my work, she said today. To bring out something that can be inspiring.”
Exiled in France, like her colleague Golshifteh Farahani, she began by distancing herself from everything that connected her to Iran, before realizing that she could finally feel fully Iranian, be proud of her roots. But the one who, as a child, secretly read Balzac and Alexandre Dumas, now also feels French. She observes with admiration the young generation in Iran, where “everything moves very quickly”. “It’s not at all an intellectual revolution, with a philosophy behind it. It’s just the desire to live free. And that’s what touches us, I think.”
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