Empty Nets
Toorhaye Khali
Previews at Cinecittà
COUNTRIES: Deutschland, Iran YEAR: 2023 RUNTIME: 98 min
DIRECTED BY: Behrooz Karamizade
LANGUAGE(S): Farsi
SUBTITLE(S): German
CAST: Hamid Reza Abbasi, Sadaf Asgari, Keyvan Mohammadi
SCRIPT: Behrooz Karamizade
PRODUCED BY: Giorgi Abashishvili, Uschi Feldges, Eva Kemme, Ansgar Frerich
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Giorgi Abashishvili, Uschi Feldges, Eva Kemme, Ansgar Frerich
EDITED BY: Anne Jünemann
SCORE: John Gürtler, Jan Miserre, Saba Alizadeh
SCREENINGS
SYNOPSIS
Amir loves Narges and Narges loves Amir. They dream of building a life together, but when Amir loses his job, marriage becomes a distant prospect – the bride price Iranian traditions demand of him is too high. Hoping to overcome class differences with hard work, Amir hires on with a rural fishery on the rugged coast of the Caspian Sea, where he becomes entangled in criminal activities of illegal caviar poaching.
Amir is increasingly drawn into a dangerous maelstrom that also endangers his relationship with Narges. With his visually impressive debut film EMPTY NETS, director Behrooz Karamizade unfolds a poetic love story and at the same time paints a haunting portrait of the young generation in Iran:
He tells of their hope for a freer future and sheds light on the life-threatening flight movements in contemporary Iran.
Behrooz Karamizade
Behrooz Karamizade was born in 1978 in Ahwaz, Iran and has lived in Germany since 1985. He studied film directing at the Kunsthochschule in Kassel. With his first short films, he won several prizes and took part in over 200 international film festivals, including the International Film Festival Rotterdam. With his graduation film BAHAR IM WUNDERLAND he won 20 prizes, including the German Human Rights Film Award 2014. EMPTY NETS is Behrooz Karamizade’s feature film debut
Murche (2007), Kindsein im Iran (2009), Packing (2009), Philipp hat Hunger (2010), Der goldene Spatz (2011), Salam Aleikum Alemagne (2012), Alles über Menschen (2012), Bahar im Wunderland (2013), Alles in Butter (2016), Lake of Happiness (2019), Leere Netze (2023)
PRODUCER: Basis Berlin Filmproduktion (film@basisberlin.de), Lpp – Living Pictures Production, Rainy Pictures (info@rainypictures.com)
WORLD SALES: Pluto Film Distribution Network Gmbh (info@plutofilm.de)
GERMAN DISTRIBUTOR: Port au Prince Film & Kultur Produktion GmbH (info@port-prince.de)