Afkari maintained his innocence and admitted that his false confession to the crime was obtained by torture.
His unjust treatment for speaking up against the stringent Iranian regime sparked global outrage from world organizations and leaders.
AMIR ZARGARA:Originally from the south of Iran.
Sia Alipour in ‘A Good Day Will Come’Amir Zargara
I was born in a city called Ahvaz.
Theres a lot in that province.
So, I spent seven years in Ahvaz and seven years in Tehran, the capital.
A Good Day Will ComeAmir Zargara
Then the second half of my life, the last 15 years, Ive been in Ottawa, Canada.
DEADLINE: What was the inspiration behind making the short film?
I read that initially, it would be a docudrama, and the short still feels that way.
Can you talk about the change to a narrative feature instead?
His name was Navid Afkari, and thats essentially the genesis of the path of this film.
So that was in my mind since then.
I waited a few years after the incident happened to him.
I thought other people might tackle the story, more established people within the Iranian film community.
And then I just didnt see anything come up.
Initially, it was a docudrama.
We ended up with a draft, but I didnt feel like it was the story.
So, I put that aside for a while.
Its called A Good Day Will Come.
Ive heard the song many times before, but it was in that specific moment [it clicked].
The opening lines of the song are, A good day will come that we wont kill each other.
Theyre not bad people.
Its just a mess of what that looks like.
Its just a mess.
As a consequence, the director and some of the actors had to flee Iran.
Was there any fear in retelling the story?
And how did you work through that?
ZARGARA:First, I should say I love[Mohammad] Rasoulof and his work.
I havent seen his new movie because its not released where Im at.
Instead of the docudrama, I just felt a lot better about this version of the story.
Why do I need to create this?
Really, I can say whatever I want, and I can make anything I want.
I have all this privilege, and if Im not exercising these privileges that Ive gained to be here…
It was hard for me to live with myself.
For me, it was more important to tell this story.
I dont know if its right or wrong.
DEADLINE: How did you find Sia Alipour to play your lead?
How did you work with him to create this story about this hero that has a tragic end?
ZARGARA:I cant thank Sia enough for saying yes to this.
I dont think we could have a movie if Sia didnt sign up to do this project.
Casting the lead was so hard for something like this.
First of all, its hard enough to get people because everybody has ties back home.
Especially if their face is in front of the camera.
So, there were just less and less people to choose from, and Sia was perfect.
The search took eight months.
When he was brought on, he brought his own team, wrestling coach and acting coach.
We did a lot of Zoom meetings and talked through every scene that he was in.
We talked about the characters needs, wants and emotional mindset.
He was very detailed in his questions because he wanted to understand the intention behind everything.
DEADLINE: You filmed this in Istanbul.
Was there anything particularly challenging about that?
Especially putting together that large protest scene.
ZARGARA:We loved shooting in Turkey.
The crews are great.
Everyone knows what theyre doing.
They shoot a lot down there.
Its kind of like LA because they have a large film industry.
That day went without a hiccup.
And shout out again to everyone at the top-down, including our producer and production manager there.
DEADLINE: That protest is a pivotal moment in the film.
Talk more about the composition of this scene.
ZARGARA:We had a few different versions of that scene written and explored them all.
I asked myself, What needs to be communicated for the audience to pick up?
And there was a version where the other family members were there, too.
If it wasnt fitting into the schedule, it shouldnt even be there.
And then, originally, there was a lot more dialogue.
That was the biggest part I struggled with because I was spoon-feeding the audience more about the contextual stuff.
Then I decided, Its OK if they dont know that.
If possible, I give a shot to make films with little to no dialogue.
DEADLINE: What do you want people to take away from this film?
ZARGARA:What I want people to take away is in the title.
It doesnt have to be gastric.
The wrestling in the film is about various levels of struggle.
Should I do this or not?
Everyones grappling with that.
Everyone is grappling with the system and the regime and making decisions at every turn.
But of course, the film is about whatever people want to take away from it as well.
