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.
