Archive of films Cut / Cut

Japan
2011, 120 min

Section: Another View
Year: 2012

The New York-based Iranian director, honored with a tribute at KVIFF 1995, went to Japan to shoot the story of Shuji, a young filmmaker and lover of classic cinema, who decides to pay off his debt to the Yakuza in a radical way. Naderi conceives his bitter cry in defense of art film as a metaphorical lampoon against the injustices which today’s filmmakers must suffer if they decide to stand firm and uncompromising by their personal visions.

Synopsis

Feeling the influence of classic Japanese cinema, New York-based Iranian director Amir Naderi decided to shoot his new picture in the land of the Rising Sun. He set the story of Shuji, a young filmmaker and lover of classic cinema, on the young man’s apartment terrace (which also serves as a film club), but also in a bar where Yakuza thugs congregate. Shuji is being forced to pay off a debt his murdered brother owes the mafia. Their uninviting establishment becomes the locus of a bizarre spectacle, another of Shuji’s "directorial events.” To wit, the avid film fan allows himself to be used as a punching bag for the amusement of the aggressive gangsters, thereby paying off the debt. Naderi conceives his bitter cry in defense of Art Film as a metaphorical lampoon against the injustices which today’s filmmakers must suffer if they decide to stand firm and uncompromising by their personal visions. Cut was chosen as the opening film of the Orizzonti section at last year’s Venice festival.

About the director

Amir Naderi (b.1946, Abádán, Iran) has been one of the most influential figures of new Iranian film since the 1970s. He hit the international scene with The Runner (1985) and Water, Wind, Dust (1985, released 1989), both of which screened at KVIFF in the 1995 tribute to Naderi, as did Manhattan by Numbers (1993). One of the first Iranian filmmakers to settle abroad, Naderi’s American films have captured the vanishing texture of New York City and have screened at Venice, Cannes, Sundance, and New York’s New Directors/New Films. Sound Barrier (2005) won the Roberto Rossellini Critics Prize at the Rome film festival. Naderi, whose works are always eagerly awaited, returned to Venice with his two latest movies, Vegas: Based on a True Story (2008) and Cut (2011).

Contacts

The Match Factory
Domstrasse 60, 50668, Cologne
Germany
Tel: +49 221 539 7090
E-mail: [email protected]
www: www.the-match-factory.com

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About the film

Color, HD CAM

Section:	Another View

Director:	Amir Naderi
Screenplay:	Amir Naderi, Abou Farman
Dir. of Photography:	Keiji Hashimoto
Editor:	Amir Naderi
Producer:	Eric Nyari, Engin Yenidunya, Regis Arnaud, Yuji Sadai, Shohreh Golparian
Production:	Tokyo Story, Bitters End
Cast:	Hidetoshi Nishijima, Takako Tokiwa, Takashi Sasano
Contact:	The Match Factory

Guests

Thania Dimitrakopoulou

Sales Agent

Amir Naderi

Film Director