Director Nader Saivar on Working With Jafar Panahi on Karlovy Vary-Bound ‘Hijamat’ and Situation in Iran Where ‘There Is a Sort of Aversion Towards Religion Among the Young Generation’

Iranian auteur Nader Saeivar – who has been collaborating with Jafar Panahi since 2017 – will soon be at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival with Berlin-set drama “Hijamat” that centers around a man named Karam, whose secret romantic relationship with a man sends shockwaves through his deeply religious Muslim family.

Saeivar, who won the best screenplay award at Cannes in 2018 for Panahi’s “3 Faces,” is well known for his directorial efforts in the underground Iranian cinema milieu. In 2020, he made his directorial debut with “Namo” that premiered at Berlin. His second feature, “No End,” premiered at Busan. Saeivar’s most recent feature, “The Witness” (2024), won the audience award at the Venice Film Festival.

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Saeivar speaks to Variety about his fourth film – the first he’s shot outside Iran, which features German stars Kida Khodr Ramadan, Moritz Bleibtreu, and Nastassja Kinski – and why he’s chosen to tackle the hot-button issue of homosexuality in the Muslim world.

I believe this is your first film shot outside Iran. How did that come about?

I was invited by a production company in Berlin to make a film there. This happened even before I made my third film in Iran. So I thought that I didn’t want to make another film about Iran, or about Iranian issues. I said to myself: “This time I want to make a film that is more personal.” Because the films that we [Iranian directors] make in Iran are mainly considered interesting due to being related to Iranian society. So I decided to make a film that is somewhat far-removed from social and political issues in Iran.

The title of your film, “Hijamat,” refers to so-called wet cupping therapy. A practice that comes from traditional Iranian medicine that involves creating suction on the skin to draw out stagnant blood and toxins. Talk to me about its significance in this story.

I wanted to show how a person’s point of view can change and that this is a good thing. This also takes place through the [wet cupping] practice in which the “dirty” blood that is under the skin in the back part of the body must be removed. In order to free ourselves from our old and outdated points of view and opinions, we need to do a sort of mental Hijamat. Even in our political battles with the regime, I believe that the real solution is not just political change. First we have to change the dirty blood, which is behind these people.

You are living in Berlin these days. Are you planning to go back to Iran?

I didn’t choose Berlin, Berlin chose me. I came here about one year-and-a-half ago, and I really fell in love with this city. It impacted my vision of life. Maybe part of the feeling of freedom is that you can perceive in “Hijamat” is related to life in this city.

Are you now living in exile in Berlin?

I’m not in exile, in that I came here to work. I can go back to Iran. But I know that if I go back, my passport would probably be confiscated, and it would not be easy to leave Iran again. Unfortunately, it’s a fact that most Iranian filmmakers now have to struggle with issues like getting their passport or leaving the country or making something freely. And only around 20% of their energy and time can go towards making good films. I spoke to Jafar Panahi yesterday. He said that since going back to Iran, he’s been spending all of his time, every single day, going to the court, seeing his lawyer, and trying to get his passport back. He has no other time left for anything else.

Talk to me about collaborating with Jafar Panahi on this film

Every time I have a new idea, the first person I speak with about it is Jafar Panahi. I spoke about this idea with him, and we started writing the script when we had just finished the script for “It Was Just an Accident.” I had to leave Iran in the middle of shooting that film. But even when I was here in Berlin, from a distance, we would rewrite parts in the script together. When I was shooting, Panahi left Iran for the Cannes Film Festival. After that he was busy travelling for his Oscar campaign. But in-between travelling every time he could he would come to Berlin and we would work on the editing together.

Talk to me about working with German-Lebanese actor Kida Khodr Ramadan

He lives in Berlin and has always been being very open and supportive to minorities, and especially immigrants, living here. We have a saying in Persian that if you want to conquer a village, you have to first go visit the mayor. If Kida wants the Arab or Turkish community [in Germany] to understand an issue, he can definitely be more successful at that than any other actor. Besides that, I was always impressed with his acting skills, the depth of his looks, and his understanding of his roles.

In the film, Khodr Ramadan plays Murad who is contending with the fact that his younger brother is gay. This is the film’s central conflict, within the context of the Muslim world in Berlin. Why did you you feel it was important to tackle this issue in this specific context?

The film is about knocking down walls that people have built around themselves, not only in the Muslim community, but also in the West. In the current Muslim society these walls have to do with God, or religious beliefs. I really wanted to tackle the center of these walls, and I thought homosexuality would be the best issue to do this.

Did you make this film also thinking about the possibility that an Iranian audience will see it through the internet?

Sure. I know they are going to see it. And I can tell you that, after living briefly in Germany, the most secular country in the world is probably Iran. In Iran there is a sort of aversion towards religion among the young generation that you don’t yet see here [in Berlin]. The church, or religion, are still very attractive to many young people here in Europe.

Nobody has a crystal ball, but what are your hopes for the future of Iran?

We have a Persian saying that goes more or less: “When the water flows, it finds its own way.” Iran’s young generation is like water. They can’t be stopped. What we are seeing is the old generation holding onto power by force. I just wish the United States had not attacked Iran. So that the people of Iran themselves would reach the required and desired result. That result would definitely have come much sooner that it will now.