EXCLUSIVE: Paris and Berlin-based sales company Salaud Morisset has boarded worldwide sales rights to A Bit of Light, the new feature from Iranian filmmaker Ali Asgari, ahead of its world premiere in Competition at this year’s Venice Film Festival.
Set in contemporary Iran, A Bit of Light follows a disillusioned doctor who loses faith in the future after being arrested and having his medical practice shut down. Determined to end his life, he spends one final day visiting his siblings and mother to prepare them for his departure.
A Bit of Light marks Asgari’s sixth feature, following Disappearance, which also premiered in Venice; Until Tomorrow, presented at the Berlinale; Terrestrial Verses, selected for Cannes’ Un Certain Regard; Higher Than Acidic Clouds, presented at IDFA; and Divine Comedy, which screened in the Orizzonti section at Venice last year. A Bit of Light will be Asgari’s first film selected for Venice’s Main Competition.
“With A Bit of Light, Ali Asgari has made a powerful political film that remains delicate, deeply human and filled with hope,” Paul Jullien, Head of Sales at Salaud Morisset, said in a statement. “It confirms his position as one of the most vital voices in Iranian cinema today. The film’s selection for Venice’s Main Competition underlines both its artistic strength and its international potential, and we are proud to bring it to distributors around the world.”
Asgari added: “A Bit of Light is not a film about sorrow, but about the invisible bonds that make life worth holding on to. In Iran, where economic hardship, political uncertainty and the threat of war have become part of everyday life, I have witnessed how people continue to care for one another and create small moments of hope. Through ordinary gestures – a familiar presence, a shared silence, or the touch of a mother’s hand – the film explores how our lives are intertwined, and how love can draw us back from despair.”
Venice runs from September 2 – 12.
