May 10, 2006
 Day Break coming to Chicago
Showing at FACETS Multimedia Cinema at 1517 West Fullerton Avenue on May 19th – 25th.
Day Break
Directed by Hamid Rahmanian
Iran / 2005 / Farsi with English subtitles / 85 min.
Trailers
* Indianapolis Int’l Film Festival 2006 – WINNER, Best of South Asia & Middle East
* Festival of African, Asian and Latin American Cinema of Milan (Italy) 2006 – WINNER, Special Jury Award
* Annonay Int’l Film Festival 2006 – WINNER, Special Jury Award
* Fajr Film Festival (Iran) 2006 – WINNER, Special Award
* Tribeca Film Festival 2006 – Official Selection
* Toronto International Film Festival 2005 – Official Selection
* Reykjavik International Film Festival 2005 (Iceland) – Official Selection
* Helsinki International Film Festival 2005 – Official Selection
SYNOPSIS
In Iran, capital punishment is carried out according to Islamic law, which gives the family of the victim ownership of the offender’s life. Day Break – based on a compilation of true stories and shot inside Tehran's century-old prison – revolves around the imminent execution of Mansour, a man found guilty of murder. When the victim’s family repeatedly fails to show up on the appointed day, Mansour’s execution is postponed again and again. Stuck inside the purgatory of his own mind, he waits as time passes on without him, caught between life and death, retribution and forgiveness.
CAST AND CREWS
Cast
-- Hossein Yari........................................................ Mansour
-- Zabi Afshar.......................................................... Hashem
-- Hoda Nasseh....................................................... Atifeh
-- Atash Taghipour...................................................Heydar
-- Maryam Amirjallali...............................................Mother
Crew
Director, Producer............................................................ Hamid Rahmanian
Writers ............................................................................. Mehran Kashani, Hamid Rahmanian
Managing Producer.......................................................... Vahid Nikhah Azad
Director of Photography....................................................Byrom Fazli
Visual and Sound Editor....................................................Ebrahim Saeedi
Original Score and Music...................................................David Bergeaud
Duduk Solo performed by..................................................Fred Seldon
Art Director and Costumer.................................................Ahmad Saket
Production Manager .......................................................... Hamid Molavi
Make Up Artist....................................................................Reza Rodmanesh
Sound Recordis.................................................................. Hassan Zahedi
Sound Mixer...................................................................... Tony Volante / Soundtrack NY
Artist Consultant to the Director..........................................Melissa Hibbard
 Director’s Biography
Hamid Rahmanian is filmmaker and graphic designer. He holds a B.F.A. from the University of Tehran in Graphic Design and earned a M.F.A. in Computer Animation in 1997 from Pratt Institute in New York City. He received “The First Place College Award” (a student Emmy) from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and was nominated for a Student Academy Award for his animation, THE SEVENTH DAY, among other awards in 1997. His first 35 mm film, a 19 minute experimental short, AN I WITHIN, received Kodak’s "Best Cinematography Award" and “Best American Short” from the LA Int’l Short Film Festival. Mr. Rahmanian has made three documentaries on video: BREAKING BREAD (2000), SIR ALFRED OF CHARLES DE GAULLE AIRPORT (2001) and SHAHRBANOO (2002), all of which have been well received by the media and worldwide audiences. In 2003, Mr. Rahmanian co-established ARTEEAST. He works as the curator of film programs for Cinema East, which is now in its 5th season. He has currently completed his first feature length film entitled DAY BREAK.
ABOUT THE PRODUCTION
Director's Statement:
“When I started working on the story for this film in 2002, the thing that I was most attracted to was not necessarily the character of Mansour and who he was or where he came from but rather the situation that he found himself in. I wanted to make the story communicate universally to the audience. I wanted them to relate to Mansour’s dilemma. Not everyone has committed murder but we have all made wrong choices, choices that perhaps were rash and passionate, propelling us into situations that we could not have imagined and for which we have not control over.
It was important that I convey the passage of time and the physical space that Mansour was trapped in while waiting for his execution day to arrive. The psychological intensity of not knowing his fate dragged him through each and every moment of that experience with minute detail. It is the details of Mansour’s day-to-day experiences that propel the story along. The struggle inside his mind to come to terms with what he has done and how he has affected his family are ubiquitously experienced by the audience. It is this commonly understood situation that brings out the universality of the story makes the film imminently imperative for everyone.”
- Hamid Rahmanian (Director)
BACKGROUND ON CAPITAL PUNISHMENT IN IRAN
Under Islamic law, as set forth in the Qur’an, a qasas crime is a crime that warrants retaliation (i.e., “an eye for an eye”). If a person is murdered in Iran, the victim’s family can have the offender executed or, conversely, may accept diya, a payment to the victim’s family as compensation for their loss. The family may even grant the murderer a pardon.
Before a condemned man can be executed, he must meet with the family of the victim to provide them one last opportunity to administer a pardon, or exchange diya for execution. The offender cannot be executed until this meeting takes place. If the family chooses to proceed with the death sentence, the victim’s next of kin must participate in the actual execution. If the family grants a pardon, or accepts diya, the offender’s life is spared, but he will serve jail time as decided by the court.
ABOUT FILM MOVEMENT
Film Movement is a distributor of award-winning independent and foreign films. Film Movement releases films both through traditional windows and simultaneously via a first-of-its-kind subscription service called the Film Movement Series. Film Movement Series members receive an award-winning feature direct from the world’s top festivals, along with a bonus short film, on DVD to own every month.
For more information, please visit www.filmmovement.com.
Photo Credits:
SHEHERAZAD MEDIA INTERNATIONAL (SMI)
2, 3rd Sarvestan, Pasdaran St, Shariati Ave,
Tehran 16619, IRAN.
Tel: +98 (21) 22 86 32 60/61
Tel/Fax: +98 (21) 22 85 89 62
E-mail:katysha@dpimail.net
www.smediaint.com
Distributor Contact: Josh Levin
Film Movement Series
109 W. 27th St., Suite 9B, New York, NY 10001
Tel: 212-941-7744 ext. 213 Fax: 212-941-7812 josh@filmmovement.com
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