Soote Payan

Niki Karimi plays a doc­u­men­tary film­mak­er, who in order to make ends meet, also makes com­mer­cial TV series. During the course of her latest project she and her hus­band Saman dis­cov­er that a young actress they employ is living a night­mare. She tries to sell a kidney because her mother is charged with murder and sen­tenced to hang; she can’t afford the blood money that would free her under sharia law. Sahar is des­per­ate to help, but the men in her life are reluc­tant at best - and dis­tract­ed by fol­low­ing the World Cup on TV. Karimi poignant­ly con­trasts the arti­fice of the film busi­ness with real-life adver­si­ty; the roving hand­held camera skill­ful­ly frames the grim story against the colour­ful, bustling streets of Tehran. FINAL WHISTLE tack­les a few con­tro­ver­sial sub­jects of Iran­ian soci­ety all crammed into one film.