Hot Docs 2008

Murder, social taboos and celebrity combine in Iran's answer to the O.J. Simpson trial. Nasser Khani is an Iranian hero and the country's top sports star: a champion soccer player and coach respected for his talent and strategy. . When his mistress, Shahla Jahed, is arrested and put on trial for the murder of Nasser's wife, his idolized story becomes unraveled. As the Iranian media sensationalize the case, director Mahnaz Afzali goes beyond the tabloid headlines. With remarkable access to both Nasser and Shahla through behind-the-scenes interviews and home-movies, Afzali reveals the curious and cryptic tensions between private lives and public personas. Shahla's courtroom testimony is sassy, tragically eloquent and totally riveting. Her public romantic pleas are a stark contrast to the private Nasser, who is revealed as more of a surly, self-centred slob than his superstar athlete persona should allow. Is Shahla really the murderer? What really happened in this love triangle? The answers provided by the strange, melodramatic courtroom proceedings are inconclusive, a mystery deepened by Nasser and Shahla's vacillating relationship.
-Brett Hendrie