Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent This year at Cannes Iran being repped by just one film, the timely underground drama “Terrestrial Verses,” co-directed by Canada-based Alireza Khatami and Iran-based Ali Asgari, premiering in Un Certain Regard.
Shot in Tehran after the Mahsa Amini movement started, “Verses” consists of 12 tableaus depicting the increasingly absurd and tragic plight that Iranians face in their everyday life with a scathingly ironic deadpan tone.
Variety spoke to the directors about how they teamed up and decided to capture the zeitgeist in turbulent Tehran. How did the project germinate? Alireza Khatami Well, I was in Iran trying to shoot a film and Ali was by my side every day helping me.
And then my film was shut down. In Iran you have to get shooting permission in order to shoot, and I was shut down. And at night we were going on this long walk through the alleys and reading classic Iranian poetry.
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