- Focus
by Davide Carbone
Clashing with power in modern-day Tehran: a five-film guide to the cinema of Ali Asgari
An Iranian doctor, desperate after an arrest that costs him his practice, decides to take his own life. Before doing so, he spends one final day with his siblings and mother, trying to prepare them for his absence in a farewell made of everyday gestures and unspoken words, against the backdrop of a country worn down by economic crisis, political uncertainty, and the threat of war. For Asgari, a film not about pain but about the invisible bonds that make life worth living.
Born in Tehran in 1982, Ali Asgari trained at Rome’s DAMS before returning to Iran to direct. Disappearance marked his Venice Orizzonti debut in 2017; after Terrestrial Verses screened at Cannes, Iranian authorities confiscated his passport and barred him from working. Making his first Main Competition appearance, after last year’s Orizzonti entry Divine Comedy, he delivers a portrait that is both political and intimate, filled with hope despite its subject.
