Final Whistle
- This is a past program
Part of the UCLA Film & Television Archive’s Celebration of Iranian Cinema screening series. Register at cinema.ucla.edu to attend this in-theater screening.
Iran, 2011
Best known for her striking on-screen performances in films by Iranian auteurs such as Dariush Mehrjoui, Tahmineh Milani and Abbas Kiarostami, Niki Karimi established herself as a filmmaker in her right when her directorial debut, One Night, premiered in Un Certain Regard at Cannes in 2005. In One Night and her three subsequent features, Karimi brings urgent attention to the stories of women forced to navigate the sharp divisions of Iranian society.
In her third feature, Final Whistle, writer-director Karimi explores those divisions from a more explicitly personal perspective through the story of a well-known filmmaker, played herself, suddenly confronted by her own privilege and the limits of fame when she becomes unexpectedly entangled in the struggles of a young extra she only needed for reshoots.
(2011, dir. Niki Karimi, DCP, color, 90 min.)