With war still ravaging Iran — six months after the country was attacked by U.S. and Israeli forces — the Venice Film Festival is set to launch two Iranian films that will provide viewers vivid on-the-ground insight on the conflict’s societal impact as the country contends with bombs and its repressive regime.
Ali Asgari, who was in Venice Horizons last year with dark satire “Divine Comedy,” is set to return to the Lido — this time in competition — with “A Bit of Light,” a drama featuring “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” star Misagh Zareh as a doctor who loses faith in the future after being arrested by Iranian authorities and having his medical practice in Tehran shut down.
“This Trump guy is threatening to bomb here every day,” a person helping the doctor says in a key scene in “A Bit of Light.” “And these window panes are huge. God forbid they should shatter and hurt you.”
Then there is Mohsen Gharaei’s Horizons player “Falling House,” which follows a modest family on the outskirts of Tehran who face the imminent destruction of their home as part of a vast redevelopment project.
“Falling House” marks Gharaei’s follow-up to “Blockage,” which portrayed corruption in contemporary Iranian society and won best film at Busan in 2017, before going on to play at Rotterdam and Munich.
