Tatami: Defying Iran’s Brutal Regime on the World Stage

A groundbreaking new film, made by a rare collaboration of Israeli and Iranian filmmakers, sheds light on Iran’s fanatical Islamist regime – and the way some brave Iranians try to resist.

After meeting in Los Angeles, Israel director Guy Nattiv and Iranian director Zar Amir Ebrahimi decided to work together on a film that illustrates the brutal way Iran’s dictatorial Mullahs (reigning Islamist leaders) curtail Iranians’ freedom and thwart their dreams. The result is Tatami, a suspenseful thriller that depicts what happens when a young Iranian athlete decides to defy her country’s draconian laws banning competing against Israelis.

“In recent decades the Iranian government has done everything in its power to prevent Iranians and Israelis from meeting each other at international events, without regard to the truth about how people actually feel,” Nattiv and Amir Ebrahimi have explained. “Despite this, we found a way.”

In addition to directing, Ebrahimi co-stars as Maryam, a former Iranian Judo champion who coaches Iran’s national women’s Judo team. Maryam’s protege is Leila, the star of Iran’s team, played with aplomb by the American-born Chilean-Iranian actress Arienne Mandi.

Banned from Contact with Israelis

Soon after she arrives in Tbilisi for the world competition, Leila is approached by Shani Lavi (played by Lir Katz), a member of Israel’s women’s Judo team. The two speak awkwardly for a few moments. They’re keenly aware that Iran strictly forbids its citizens from interacting with Israelis. From their dialogue, it’s also obvious that they know and care about each other. Shani asks Leila about her son; Leila asks Shani if she’s still dating her boyfriend. When Shani replies that they broke up, Leila tells her she hopes she finds happiness soon.

Implacably opposed to the very existence of Israel since the 1979 Iranian Revolution, contact with “the Zionist entity” is against the law. They can be prosecuted even for using electronic items that contain parts made in Israel – or even just made by companies that have branches in Israel. Iranians have been imprisoned and executed as supposed “spies” for Israel, with no evidence for their supposed treachery ever produced.

Pressure to Fake Injury or Withdraw from Competition

Most of Tatami unfolds within the confines of Tbilisi’s towering Soviet-era sports stadium, over the course of a single World Judo Championship. Leila wins round after round early in the tournament, heading towards the finals. We catch glimpses of Shani who’s also advancing. The athletes don’t realize that a matchup is looming on the horizon.

Iranians are routinely pressured to fake injuries or throw matches in order to avoid competing against Israelis, devastating their sporting careers after years of grueling training.

The 2004 Olympics, World Judo Champion Arash Miresmaeli of Iran was forced to withdraw from the competition after he was assigned an early match against Ehud Vaks of Israel. Miresmaeli falsely claimed to be 2 kg over his weight class and was disqualified from competition. When asked if he did so of his own free will, the Iranian committee replied “No.”

Saeid Mollaei (Wikipedia)

Saeid Mollaei was the reigning champion when he competed in the World Judo Championships in Tokyo in 2019. He was ordered to throw a match to avoid facing Israeli athlete Sagi Muki in the finals. He was told that Iranian security officials were at his parents’ house in Iran. “You’re supposed to be brave in life,” Mollaei later recalled. “But a thousand questions went through my head. What will happen to me or my family? So I listened to the order.”

Disgusted with Iran, Mollaei later defected and became a citizen of Mongolia, competing – and winning an Olympic medal – as part of Mongolia’s national Judo team.

In Tatami Leila and her coach are given orders to fake an injury and are threatened that their loved ones back in Iran may pay the price if they don’t capitulate to the regime’s demands.

Real-Life Heroines

Directors Guy Nattiv and Zar Amir Ebrahimi said Tatami is modeled on the heroic actions of real-life Iranian women who defied their country’s brutal Islamist regime.

Kimia Alizadeh was an Olympic champion Taekwondo athlete who defected from Iran to Europe in 2020 to protest Iran’s restrictive authoritarianism. “I wore whatever they told me to wear,” she posted on social media soon after defecting. “I repeated everything they told me to say. None of us matter to them.”

Kimia Alizadeh (Wikipedia)

After defecting, Alizadeh competed for the Refugee Olympic Team at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics; she won a Bronze Medal for the team at the European Taekwondo Championships in 2022. She eventually gained Bulgarian citizenship and won another Olympic Medal – this time for Bulgaria – in 2024.

Sadaf Khadem was Iran’s first female boxer to win a fight overseas when she competed in France in 2019. Instead of rejoicing in her victory, Iran’s governing authorities issued a warrant for her arrest, on the grounds that she wore shorts and didn’t don an Islamic headscarf during her fight. Terrified of returning home, Khadem remained in France.

Khadem has been unable to return home; she couldn’t even visit her dying mother. “Unfortunately because of this government in Iran the people there have lost their human rights,” Khadem observes from her new home in France.

Mahsa Amini, a young woman from a Kurdish province in far northwestern Iran, is another model for the film. On September 13, 2022, she and her brother arrived in Tehran to visit relatives. Used to the relatively relaxed mores of Kurdistan, Mahsa let some hair show from beneath the headscarf that women in Iran are ordered to wear outside. She didn’t realize that Iran’s fearsome Morality Police were cracking down on such infractions in the nation’s capital.

Mahsa Amini (Wikipedia)

Mahsa was arrested and brutally beaten by the police. She fell into a coma and died three days later. She was 22 years old. The police claimed she’d died of natural causes but the Iranian people knew what really happened and her murder sparked nationwide protests. By the end of 2022, over 20,000 protestors – mostly women – had been arrested. Over 500 were killed by Iran’s security services in the protests between September and December 2022 alone.

A final inspiration for Tatami was Elnaz Rekabi, a female Iranian athlete who protested Mahsa’s death. She shed her headscarf in October 2022 while she competed in the International Federation of Sports Climbing’s Asian Championships in South Korea. Iranian officials acted quickly, confiscating her phone and passport, and arranging for Elnaz to be brought back to Iran under guard immediately. Her friends reported being unable to communicate with her.

Elnaz was finally allowed back into Iran after claiming, implausibly, that her headscarf fell off accidentally. Her family home was later demolished by Iranian authorities.

Blueprint for the Future

A recent poll showed that 68% of Iranians yearn for Iran to normalize their relations with the United States. Despite the constant drumbeat of negative propaganda about Jews and Israel, fully a quarter of Iranians say they wish to have normal and open relations with Israel, too.

As the world watches Israel’s efforts to thwart the Iranian regime’s pursuit of a nuclear bomb, this film offers a glimpse into the yearning for freedom among ordinary Iranians.