Ali Asgari says cinema is resistance in Iran

Iranian director Ali Asgari said at the Venice Film Festival on Friday that ordinary choices in Iran have become political and that cinema is a way to resist censorship and pressure.

Asgari is competing for the Golden Lion with “A Bit of Light,” a film about a Tehran doctor scarred by violence against anti-government protesters who decides to end his life. Speaking before the film's premiere, he said even internet access can become a political act in Iran.

“Cinema is the same; it is, in my opinion, a very powerful means of resistance,” Asgari said.

Shadmehr Rastin, who co-wrote the screenplay with Asgari, said the film's despair and numbness reflected what Iranians were experiencing after what he described as a massacre and a war.

Lead actor Misagh Zareh said powerlessness had deepened despair. He said he had been summoned after posting online against an execution and had been forced to live outside Iran for eight months after his previous film.

Producer Milad Khosravi said making movies in Iran involved difficulties from covering basic production costs to obtaining permission or bringing a small crew and camera into the street. He said filmmakers, writers and other intellectuals were constantly under pressure, and that war had increased restrictions.