Ali Mosaffa – Filmmaker and actor – The Last Step
Iranian filmmaker Ali Mosaffa returned behind the camera in his first directorial feature after his 2005 debut “Portrait of a Lady Far Away” with his latest film “The Last Step” – which after an award winning run in the festival circuit – was shown at the 4th edition of the Festival of Iranian Film in Prague.
We chat with Ali about his influences from James Joyce’s story “The Dead” and Leo Tolstoy and his story “The Death of Ivan Ilyich” in his own narrative. We also ask him about the casting about his real life wife and Iranian acting superstar Leila Hatami – who is superb in the film – and how their real life relationship affected the film. On top of that, we ask him whether being an actor of international fame helped him bring the film to the screen and get his project financed.
A poet meditation of love and death in contemporary Tehran, “The Last Step” is a compelling tale of an Iranian couple before, during and after the husband’s death. Drifting through space and time and living the peculiar moments of his married life once again, the dead husband becomes the deceitful narrator and the disappointed witness to an old love triangle.