When it comes to great release timing, it’s hard to beat Tatami arriving on the heels of a war between Israel and Iran. The film, on the festival circuit since the fall of 2023 but finally hitting U.S. screens at the end of June, is co-directed by an Israeli (Guy Nattiv) and an Iranian (Zar Amir Ebrahimi, also the co-star).
It’s the first film with that distinction, considering their governments aren’t on good terms with each other, although filmmakers in both countries, including these two, aren’t fans of their respective regimes. The filmmakers have said in interviews that they purposely made it about a woman athlete to tell a story about women resisting the Iranian regime.
Tatami is excellent—not merely a sports film or a geopolitical meditation, but also, in many ways, a tense thriller. Nattiv directed the Golda Meir biopic a few years ago, the one that starred Helen Mirren and was set during the Yom Kippur War. Amir Ebrahimi is probably best known to international audiences for starring in the Iranian serial killer film Holy Spider.
It’s set at a world championship judo tournament, not based on a true story, but loosely based on an incident that took place at a men’s tournament in 2019. A woman in the tournament named Leila (Arienne Mandi), who represents Iran, is pressured by her international federation, and by the upper regions of the Iranian regime, to withdraw from the tournament rather than potentially face an Israeli competitor. Amir Ebrahimi plays her coach, a judo legend who also competed for Iran. It’s made clear, in an early scene, that the Iranian and Israeli athletes are on friendly terms and see each other as competitors, and not enemies.
The threats start early in the tournament, before it’s clear that the two are going to meet in the final. The ultimatum leads to a choice: Leila can either defy her country, and a regime that isn’t forgiving about such matters, and put her safety and that of her family at risk or she can go against her every instinct as a competitor, possibly jeopardizing her dreams of Olympic glory. We also see the judo officials, who find themselves dealing with a potential international incident.
The film is less about the conflict between Israel and Iran, as it is about the conflict within Iran itself. The Israeli character and Israel itself don’t end up having much to do with the plot. There’s little discussion of why Iran dislikes Israel or why they refuse to compete with them, to the point where I expect that’ll emerge as a critique of the film. The plot’s positioned more as an Iranian woman asserting her dignity in the face of the regime.
What do Iranian filmmakers think about recent events in their country, including a U.S. strike? I’m looking forward to the films that are made in response to that, but Tatami is about something else.