"A Bit of Light" is Asgari’s first film selected for Venice’s main competition Iranian director Ali Asgari, who was in Venice Horizons last year with dark satire “Divine Comedy,” will soon be back — in competition this time — with his new feature “A Bit of Light.” Variety is unveiling a first clip of the timely film, which is being sold internationally by France’s Salaud Morisset and released by Teodora Film Distribuzione in Italy. Set in contemporary Iran, “A Bit of Light” follows a disillusioned doctor who, after being arrested and having his medical practice shut down, loses faith in the future. Their compassion, care and companionship slowly reconcile him with reality,” says the film’s synopsis.
In the “A Bit of Light” clip, we see the film’s protagonist engage in conversation with someone who is helping him remove plants from a room amid the thumping sound of helicopter blades overhead. Can we ever separate our own existence from the lives of others? Are our choices truly only our own, or do they leave traces in the hearts and memories of those around us?” Asgari said in his directors’ statement.
Perhaps what allows us to keep going is not the absence of suffering, but the invisible connections that bind us together, the feeling that our existence is intertwined with the lives of others,” he added. Through ordinary gestures and seemingly insignificant encounters, it reveals how meaning can emerge from the smallest moments: an act of kindness, a familiar presence, a shared silence, or the gentle touch of a mother’s hand,” Asgari continued. Suffering may never disappear completely, and life may remain filled with uncertainty and injustice.
But perhaps the value of life has never depended on the absence of pain. Perhaps it lies in our ability to love, to be loved, and in the traces we leave behind in the lives of others,” the director concluded. The film’s other producers are Sunny Independent Pictures, Zoe Films, Good Measure Productions, Haurvatat Film, MeMo Films, Salt for Sugar Films and Avantika Singh Desbouvries.
The Venice Film Festival will run Sept. 2-12.
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