“We are not our governments,” says Israel’s Guy Nattiv, who co-directed the politically charged sports thriller “Tatami” with Iran’s Zar Amir. Originally premiering at Venice in 2023, the film opened in American movie theaters on June 13 as Israel attacked Iran, starting a war — also involving the U.S. — that now appears to have been halted by a fragile truce.
Amir, who won the Cannes best actress award in 2022 for “Holy Spider,” stars in “Tatami” as the coach of an Iranian judo athlete named Leila (played by Arienne Mandi). The Iranian regime gives her an ultimatum, demanding that she fake an injury and withdraw from the Judo World Championships rather than face an Israeli rival in the final.
Marking the first collaboration between directors from Israel and Iran, Nattiv approached Amir to act in the film before she became more involved, driven by her desire to make the details fully authentic. Nattiv eventually invited her to co-direct it.
Below, in a wide-ranging conversation with Variety, Nattiv and Amir underline their desire to “make art, not war,” as Nattiv put it, and speak about why their unprecedented collaboration is now “more necessary than ever.”
A lot has already been said about the significance of you working together on “Tatami.” What are your thoughts on the even greater meaning of this joint effort after Israel attacked Iran?
Zar Amir: I’m happier than ever that we did this collaboration. I think the movie speaks for itself, but symbolically it means a lot to us that we can share it with audiences all over the world. I was just talking to Guy and thinking that, when it comes to making war, everything seems to be working so well. But when it comes to peace things are much more complex. So, as an artist who opened herself to this collaboration, I think we need this type of friendship more than ever. Especially between us and the Israeli people.
Guy Nattiv: The people of Israel and the people of Iran actually love each other. They do not agree with their toxic governments. And, at the end of the day, it never was about the governments. You know, my mother has been sitting in a shelter and there’s bombs everywhere. And Zar’s mother and her family have been in the same exact situation, even though they don’t have shelters. So for me, I’m calling Zar asking her what’s going on with her family and it feels like it’s my family.
“Tatami” is a female empowerment sports thriller written before the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement. It seems to have anticipated several things that were to come. Did you ever imagine it would become so symbolic?
Nattiv: “Tatami” is actually inspired by an incident that happened in 2019 with two male judo figthers: Iran’s Saeid Mollaei and Israel’s Sagi Muki ,who were friends and were put in the same situation. Mollaei was forced to lose the semi-final to avoid fighting against Muki. But in the movie we decided to make it female athletes because we saw more and more female athletes who were rebelling against the regime. This made it natural for us to change the protagonist from male to female.
Zar, this film has been out for a couple of years. We both know that Iranians see lots of movies using virtual private networks. Do you have a sense of the meaning of “Tatami” for people inside Iran?
Amir: There has a been a very positive reaction to the movie [in Iran]. You know, when I was in school, we were all kind of manipulated by the ideology of this government. We needed an enemy, so that was in our mind. But the young generation now has access to information, so they are much more open-minded than mine or my parent’s generation. The feedback has been great. Many people I heard from loved the movie, they were happy about this collaboration. They cried. They got the emotion that we wanted to convey.
Zar, revered Iranian auteur Jafar Panahi, who is now in Australia, has basically called for Iranians to “initiate” a democratic government. What are your thoughts about possible efforts to achieve so-called regime change in Iran at this time?
Amir: Iran and the whole region are very diverse. There are many people who have different ideas and life and have points of view. Jafar’s point of view comes from Jafar, and I think many of us share this point of view. But you cannot say he represents the majority of the people. What I fear is that, of course, through war you can’t solve anything. Democracy and peace do not come from war. I personally share Jafar’s ideas about this whole thing. But I also believe in a democratic election involving the entire population, not just some of us who have a voice. I’m very curious to hear from those who don’t have a voice. That’s why I say: why can’t they bring peace in another way? If all these world leaders want to help us, why can’t they find a solution so that a real election can be called? It would be the first real Iranian election in 40 years. Then we could see what people really want, if they really want this regime to step down. It’s easy to wish for regime change, but how?
Guy, how do you feel about Benjamin Netanyahu urging the Iranian people to stand up to the regime?
Nattiv: I’m not a Natanyahu supporter. I never was. I feel “Tatami” is not only about Iran, it’s about totalitarian governments all over the world. And in a way, it’s about the country I left 15 years ago. Because you can see how the government approach in Israel is toxic. They want to control art, they want to control everything. Israelis have lost a lot of their democratic views, in a way. So “Tatami” is also a little bit about the country that I left, because Israel is veering closer to what Iran became after the revolution. But not only Israel. It’s about Russia and China and North Korea and Belarus and Hungary. Countries that are all diminishing LGBTQ rights and artists’ rights. I think it’s about what the world has become. And in a way, it’s also about what’s going on in the U.S., where people are being arrested because of their views.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Zar Amir Ebrahimi and Arienne Mandi star in “Tatami.”
Courtesy of Juda Khatia Psuturi
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