Iranian auteur Nader Saeivar – who has been collaborating with Jafar Panahi since 2017 – will soon be at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival with Berlin-set drama “Hijamat” that centers around a man named Karam, whose secret romantic relationship with a man sends shockwaves through his deeply religious Muslim family.
Saeivar, who won the best screenplay award at Cannes in 2018 for Panahi’s “3 Faces,” is well known for his directorial efforts in the underground Iranian cinema milieu. In 2020, he made his directorial debut with “Namo” that premiered at Berlin. His second feature, “No End,” premiered at Busan. Saeivar’s most recent feature, “The Witness” (2024), won the audience award at the Venice Film Festival.
Saeivar speaks to Variety about his fourth film – the first he’s shot outside Iran, which features German stars Kida Khodr Ramadan, Moritz Bleibtreu, and Nastassja Kinski – and why he’s chosen to tackle the hot-button issue of homosexuality in the Muslim world.
I believe this is your first film shot outside Iran. How did that come about?
I was invited by a production company in Berlin to make a film there. This happened even before I made my third film in Iran. So I thought that I didn’t want to make another film about Iran, or about Iranian issues. I said to myself: “This time I want to make a film that is more personal.” Because the films that we [Iranian directors] make in Iran are mainly considered interesting due to being related to Iranian society. So I decided to make a film that is somewhat far-removed from social and political issues in Iran.
