A Bit of Light (Kami Nour)
“Ali Asgari’s Iranian Answer to ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ is a bit of a miracle” (Indiewire)
February 2026, Tehran. The Iranian people are reeling from the massacre of young protesters by the regime. Doctor Arash, who helped treat the victims, is physically and morally exhausted. He has decided to end his life. But the day refuses to go according to plan.
Arash has made his plans carefully: before dying, he will spend one final day visiting his brother, two sisters and mother, preparing them for his absence and putting his affairs in order.
Moving through Tehran, Arash encounters former patients, friends and family, and is drawn into the small, stubborn rituals of everyday life. His sisters worry about him; his mother carries on with the ordinary business of caring for her family. Even the plants he tends become reminders of things that continue to need him. Gradually, the certainty of his decision begins to falter. Exiled Iranian filmmaker Ali Asgari finds a quiet drama of despair, solidarity and the fragile reasons that can make life worth holding on to.
A profoundly affecting drama and a stark example of cinema’s agility in responding to contemporary events, A Bit of Light was deservedly described as a luminous, searing drama - a fiction, yet so close to reality - in the raving reviews written upon its world premiere in the Venice film festival competition.
