Empty Nets
Description
What begins as a pursuit of love becomes a dangerous journey into the seedy underbelly of Iran’s fisheries in director Behrooz Karamizade’s heart-wrenching neorealist debut. Deeply enamored with each other, Amir and Narges want to marry but Narges’s upper-class parents disapprove of the union. Amir is determined to prove himself worthy by earning a quick fortune for her dowry—a challenge in Iran’s difficult employment market. A talented swimmer, he earns a spot in a fishing operation, where he learns there is big money to be made in the perilous work of poaching and human smuggling. Now living far from his beloved, will Amir’s relationship with Narges survive the separation? Ashkan Ashkani’s dreamy cinematography captures the beauty of the Caspian Sea, a contrast to the ugly secrets the water holds, in this striking portrait of romance struggling against Iran’s social realities.
Biographies
Born in Iran and raised in Germany, Behrooz Karamizade studied film direction at Kunsthochschule Kassel in Kassel, Germany, where he made his short film Bahar in Wonderland (2013), which won over 20 film festival prizes. In addition to working as a director, he is a cameraman and editor. From 2015–2017, he taught at his alma mater.
