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Taika Waititi, who won an Oscar for the “Jojo Rabbit” screenplay, and Odessa Rae, the producer of Oscar winner “Navalny” and Oscar-nominated “The Voice of Hind Rajab,” have come on board “A Bit of Light” as executive
producers as the Ali Asgari drama heads into its world premiere in competition at the Venice Film Festival.
Paris- and Berlin-based Salaud Morisset is handling worldwide sales on the title.
Set in contemporary Iran, the film follows a disillusioned doctor who loses faith in the future after being arrested and having his medical practice shut down. Determined to end his life, he spends one final day visiting his siblings and mother to prepare them for his departure. Their compassion, care and companionship slowly reconcile him with reality.
Waititi said: “I was deeply moved by the film’s poetry, humanity and emotional power. I was honored to come on board as an executive producer and to support this brilliant film as it makes its way into the world.”
Rae added: “Being in competition matters enormously for films like these. It gives them a chance to be seen, particularly in the American market, which is so difficult for independent international films to break through. These films will never be supported by the regimes they challenge. Their directors face enormous obstacles — and sometimes risk their freedom — simply to tell stories they believe need to be told. Look at Jafar Panahi, who faces court again in two months and the possibility of prison. We need to support filmmakers who risk everything to show us the realities of the lives they are living.
“Voices like Ali Asgari’s are so important. There is such power in the minimalism and restraint of his filmmaking – intimate, deeply human stories that reveal something far beyond the political contexts we so often expect to hear about from Iran. Supporting independent voices like Ali’s means giving Iranian filmmakers the space to tell their timely and important stories on their own terms.”
“A Bit of Light” is lead produced by Milad Khosravi’s Seven Springs Pictures. The film’s other producers are Sunny Independent Pictures, Zoe Films, Good Measure Productions, Haurvatat Film, MeMo Films and Salt for Sugar Films.
Khorsravi, lead producer of the film, said: “A Bit of Light is my fourth feature collaboration with Ali Asgari as producer, which in many ways is our most urgent. The idea had been with us for years, but after the January uprising and the devastating mass killing that followed, we felt we could no longer wait. We wanted to make a film that confronts one of the darkest moments our country has lived through, while still holding onto the possibility of hope and continuing life.
“Making the film under such circumstances was extraordinarily difficult. Iran had already become far more heavily controlled after the January uprising, and once the war broke out in February, the bombardments made the situation become nearly impossible. Between the attacks and intensified security inside the country, continuing the shoot was no longer viable, and filmmaking across Iran effectively came to a halt. This led us to move the remaining production to Istanbul, where we worked with a very small team and filmed inside homes belonging to Iranians.
“Every film Ali and I have made together has required us to find alternative ways of making independent cinema under extraordinary pressure. ‘A Bit of Light’ grew out of that same persistence, but also out of a moment when making the film felt absolutely necessary.”
