Göteborg Market Prizes Zar Amir Ebrahimi’s Debut Pic, Next Miia Tervo 

Eagerly-awaited as one of the star projects of the new Nordic Gateway strand of the Göteborg Film Festival, a new section connecting international features to Nordic partners, “Honor of Persia,” the solo directing debut of French-Iranian actor Zar Amir Ebrahimi, was handed Jan. 30 the inaugural Tint Post-Production Award worth SEK 400,000 ($36,600).

Inspired by the Cannes-winning actor of “Holy Spider”’s personal experience, the story co-written by Ebrahimi with Mahmoud Chokrollahi, turns on Ava Rad, a beloved star of Iranian TV and cinema adored by the religious Guardians of the Islamic Revolution and Iran’s cultural elite. “When an old explicit tape of her is leaked, the woman starts a descent into hell,” reads the logline.

During her moving pitch to a crowd of industry delegates at Göteborg’s Nordic Film Market, Ebrahimi opened up about the genesis of the project and the urgency for her to bring it to the screens.

 “In 2005, I was well-known in Iran, acting in movies and popular shows. Then I found myself in the center of a scandal, with my life torn into pieces after a personal sex tape was leaked – in a society caught between Quranic moral values and modern life in the age of the internet,” she recalled. She faced “months of interrogations, work ban, a virginity test” and feared for her life.

“It was a year filled with nightmares. In 2008, I finally managed to leave Iran, only a few hours before my trial. My upcoming feature is an autobiographical story, focused on that period of my life in Iran. This is my story, and I will interpret the main character,” she said. 

Ebrahimi is hoping to deliver an “authentic, intense, and unusual” film about “betrayal, and a tragicomic portrait of a truly schizophrenic country.”  

“It’s a story of sexual harassment, which is a part of women’s life in Iran, but an incredibly universal thing. When we talk about such harassment, we can’t forget about the side effects it can have on victims, from dissociative identity disorder, or dissociative amnesia, to a crisis of one’s own identity.” 

She will tell the story from multiple angles, she explained: “As a young woman who didn’t want to be seen as a victim, an actress navigating a continuous struggle and as a filmmaker who could draw upon real-life experiences and traumas to enrich her work.”

The film. in the financing stage, is being produced by Ebrahimi’s own Paris-based  Alambic Production with Mohammad Farokhmanesh of Germany’s Brave New Works , and Jacob Jarek for Denmark’s Profile Pictures, credited for Ali Abbasi’s “Holy Spider.”

The jury of the Tin Post-production Award consisting of Claus Ladegaard, the former CEO at the Danish Film Institute, Jacobine van der Vloed, managing director of ACE Producers, and Norwegian producer Maria Ekerhovd of Mer Film said: “With a captivating artistic expression, this writer-director tells a courageous and personal story, what we believe the audience needs and wants to see.” 

“Honor of Persia” was among five outstanding international films selected for the inaugural Nordic Gateway, together with the social critique “Bleach” by Kosovo-based Kaltrina Krasniqi, the musical “The Love of My Life” by Philippe Lesage (“Genesis”), the comedy drama “Grammatik” by Chinese Hamburg-based Popo Fan, and Arctic-set drama “Torpor” by Belgium rising talent Meltse Van Coillie.

Meanwhile Finnish writer-director Miia Tervo who had won over the 300-plus Nordic Film Market attendees with her humorous pitch earlier in the day for “You Crazy Thing”, was bestowed the new €15,000 ($15,600) Film Finances Scandinavia Award, celebrating “a Nordic feature project from the Discovery Co-production Platform that demonstrates artistic excellence and international potential”.

Tervo’s third pic, after the multi-awarded Aurora” and “The Missile,” is being produced by Marko Talli  of Finland’s Yellow Film & TV.

The story penned by the filmmaker, turns on Aino, a broke-ass mental health nurse who hates the rich, prepares a performance with her patients for TV’s Talent competition. But when she falls in love with one of the patients, wealthy investment consultant Mikael, Aino has to learn that in order to be loved you have to dare to reveal yourself with all your craziness.

“I come from a broken family in Lapland and my mum was a nurse, working at a hospital; the only difference between her and the patients is that she had the keys!” said Tervo jokingly during her pitch. Tervo who said she learned how to fend for herself in a poor household, received ‘wise’ advise form her mum such as “your inner world is the most important. I couldn’t care less about my inner world when all I wanted was a new pair of jeans!”, she said. But her upbringing made her think about how class affects who you are.

The film is about identity, class and love,” summarised Tervo. 

In their statement, the jury of the Film Finances Scandinavia Award including director Goran Kapetanović, MOIN Film Fund’s Katrin Mersmann and New Zealand International Film Festival’s Paolo Bertolin said: “We unanimously decided to award a story coming from a remote place that hits close to the heart thanks to an equally heartfelt and hilarious presentation. This project promises to turn into a melancholic yet humorous view on human life that reveals how what makes us different could be just a pair of keys.”
A total of 14 features from the Discovery Co-production Platform were competing for the new award, while Lone Scherfig’s first Swedish project “Honeytrap,” a spy romance set in Stockholm 1968, was presented out of competition.

Scherfig’s project produced by Sweden’s Rebecka Hamberger is based on an original script by Pelle Rådström, winner of this year’s Best Nordic Series Script Award for “Pressure Point.”

A total of 14 features from the Discovery Co-production Platform were competing for the new award, while Lone Scherfig’s first Swedish project “Honeytrap”, a spy romance set in Stockholm 1968, was presented out of competition.

Scherfig’s project produced by Sweden’s Rebecka Hamberger is based on an original script by Pelle Rådström, winner of this year’s Best Nordic Series Script Award for Pressure Point.

Other projects featured in the Nordic Gateway included “Bleach,” following a group of female cleaners, discussing a bleach brand in a focus group. Produced by Vera Films (Kosovo), it’s co-produced by Slingshot Films (Italy), Code Blue Productions (Montenegro), Family Affair Films (Netherlands) and Dream Factory Macedonia (North Macedonia). 

“When I became a mother, I realized I needed help. I posted an ad looking for a nanny, and in two weeks, more than 300 women reached out. I was shocked. Having a nanny made me question my everyday values. It’s not regular by law in Kosovo, so there is violence and violations,” said the director. Her film will take a closer look at class dynamics. 

In Germany “Grammatik,” produced by Fünferfilm, Chinese director Popo Fan reflects on his experiences as a migrant. 

“When I came to Germany, I was relieved from censorship in China, but I was punished by having to learn German,” he told the audience. Navigating a language “famous for its complicated grammar rules and highly disciplined society,” he decided to make a romantic drama about two migrants, Chinese artist and Syrian cook, “seeking for what freedom really means to them, through a relationship.” 

“They couldn’t be more different. One is driven by immediate desire; the other one believes in self-discipline to gain what he wants. They find each other attractive, but to fall in love is even more difficult than learning German,” said Fan, also teasing “scenes of delicious food and hot, hot sex.”

The film, structured around German grammar terms, reflects on “how language restricts us while, at the same time, bridging different cultures and people together.”

In “Torpor,” debuting director Meltse Van Coillie joins forces with Menuetto Film on a story of a polar bear guard, Olivia, protecting a group of scientists during the dark months in the Arctic.

“You’re probably wondering why two Belgians want to develop a film set in the Arctic. In 2019, I traveled to Greenland. I arrived there in the middle of a fierce snowstorm and stayed for five weeks, all alone in a small wooden house. I remember thinking: ‘Tonight I won’t bother. I’ll stay inside and tomorrow I’ll go outside and explore. But then I woke up and it hit me. Up there, there was no tomorrow.”

Her protagonist doesn’t mind extreme conditions. Until she’s asked to prolong her stay on board of a research vessel for a whole winter, as scientists study the first people ever known to hibernate. 

“For Olivia, these sleeping locals are interesting, because they make her question her own state of mind. Why does she try to fight the cold, the fatigue, the loneliness? Wouldn’t it be easier to surrender to the rhythm nature indicates, and dive into a deep sleep as well? For me, it feels very bold and radical to be passive in an age like this, where our whole society depends on productivity,” said Van Coillie, hoping her viewers will also “slow down for a bit, and surrender to the dark, to the unknown, and to the power of the collective.”

Finally, Philippe Lesage presented “The Love of My Life” from Canada and Quebec, backed by Productions L’unité Centrale. Previously, Lesage explored Nordic connections in “Copenhagen – A Love Story.”

“Nobody saw that, so this is my revenge film. I’m taking my revenge with a musical,” he joked. “Sometimes I feel that we, the people who still believe in cinema, are like the orchestra on the Titanic. I decided to tell a story of this unknown documentary maker who comes to a festival.” 

As he screens his film in an empty theater, he also meets a woman he used to know. She’s with her daughter – it’s actually his daughter, too. 

“There’s dancing and some crazy choreography. The actors sing a few original songs, but also some that already exist. It’s an homage to the films of Jacques Demy [behind “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg”], but sometimes it gets a bit crazier than that, like a Spike Jonze video,” he added.

More than 550 professionals are attending this week’s Nordic Film Market in Göteborg, which closes Jan. 31.