‘We speak judo, not hatred,’ say Israeli and Iranian co-directors of film ‘Tatami’

Iran is often on Israelis’ minds, following two ballistic strikes in one year, ongoing nuclear talks with the US, and America warning Israel not to strike the Islamic Republic — which it did on June 13, 2025, anyway.

Yet “Tatami,” a film made three years ago by French-Iranian and American-Israeli co-directors, is about the politics of sports and female power, concerned with the possibility of collaboration between would-be enemies.

The film, about a female Iranian judoka told by her coach to fake an injury rather than go up against an Israeli competitor and be branded a traitor to the Islamic Republic, will reach US theaters on June 13, just following the unprecedented Israeli preventative strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities and top military brass.

It’s co-directed by Academy Award-winning director Guy Nattiv with French-Iranian actress Zar Amir Ebrahimi, and is inspired by true events.

Nattiv began thinking about female Iranian athletes rebelling against their country’s regime — Olympic taekwondo champion Kimia Alizadeh, who fled to Germany in January 2020; boxer Sadaf Khadem who has been living in exile in France since 2019; Iranian Olympic skier Atefeh Ahmadi who quit her home country and applied for asylum in Germany; and others.

The women became inspirational fodder for “Tatami,” the term for the traditional Japanese mat used in judo matches. The film follows a single night in the lives of judoka Leila Hosseini (played by Iranian Chilean Arienne Mandi) and coach Maryam Ghanbari (Zar Amir Ebrahimi).

Leila is on a winning streak at the World Judo Championships in Tbilisi, Georgia, when Maryam gets the call from Iranian authorities to abort her campaign for a gold medal. She tells Leila to fake an injury rather than meet the Israeli competitor in person.

The powerful film, shot in black-and-white, builds on the tensions between coaches and athletes. It shows interactions between the Iranian and Israeli judokas, while also spotlighting Leila’s family cheering back home in Iran.

“Tatami” was filmed in the fall of 2022 in Tbilisi, chosen for its proximity to both Iran and Israel. Nattiv had asked Ebrahimi, who won Best Actress at Cannes in 2022 for her role in “Holy Spider,” to co-direct with him, knowing he couldn’t direct Iranian actors alone.

The pair have been screening the film with audiences ahead of its theatrical release, and Ebrahimi said that she’s moved by the reactions the film receives everywhere they go.

“I never expected this huge emotional outpouring,” said Ebrahimi in an interview with The Times of Israel. “I’m so happy, because this is the reason we are doing this movie. It’s never been just political.”

As two people from Middle Eastern countries, she and Nattiv wanted to talk about politics in the film without speaking about it directly, she added.

“We made the movie about an Iranian athlete — but, as an Israeli, I see the country I left behind becoming more and more radical and closer to what the Islamic regime is,” said Nattiv, who left Israel for Los Angeles 15 years ago. “We made a film about Iran, but the country I grew up in is becoming this totalitarian place. That’s what I see from the outside.”

Nattiv said he feels that Israel’s art and news media are increasingly under the control of the government, along with the judicial system — referring to the ultra-right government under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government’s push to politicize the courts.

Now, as the film is heading to theaters, Nattiv emphasized that “Tatami” is not an Israeli film and did not receive any funding from Israel’s public film funds, but rather is an international film for both filmmakers, who no longer live in their home countries.

While “Tatami” did not receive any funding from public Israeli film funds, it did receive financing from Israel’s Keshet International. The film’s Israeli producer, Moshe Edry, helped get Ebrahimi, who lives in Paris, into Israel to work on the editing with Nattiv in 2023, before the October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attack.

When Nattiv spoke to The Times of Israel in September 2023 after wrapping shooting, he remarked on the ironies of drinking coffee in Tel Aviv with Ebrahimi who, growing up in Iran, had to step on the Israeli and US flags in school every morning.

The pair began working together in 2022, “when the world was a little more sane,” said Nattiv. “In this film, we speak judo, not hatred.”

“This conflict has existed between our countries since before I was born,” added Ebrahimi. “It’s something that’s always been there.”

“Iranians don’t hate Israelis,” said Nattiv. “We were always told in Israel that all Iranians hate us, but it’s about finding a human sliver of hope, to collaborate in dark times.”

What’s new, said Nattiv, is this kind of collaboration.

“Instead of boycotting each other,” he said, “we collaborated and made a statement about art.”

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