ERZAL

Erzal is a young man who lives in Ahwaz, on the border between Iraq and Iran. He falls in love with a girl who escaped from Poland during World War II, but she dies and is buried in Ahwaz. The man is self-isolating. He works as a guard for an oil company, having inherited the profession from his father. He will not marry, and he will not move around much except to visit the grave of his Polish girl. It becomes an essential pillar of the company that began to age, like him, with the passage of time.
Today, he is ninety-nine years old. He meets a young Arab girl who is fleeing the flood that flooded her village. He decides to shelter her in the abandoned company, out of sight. Love is renewed in his blood; she is looking for shelter and salvation, and he is looking for companionship and love.
Erzal dives into the thorny relationship between two different generations, separated by many. But they are united by loss, loneliness, love, need, and many barren feelings in contemporary Ahwaz.

  • Habib BaviSajed
    Director
  • Habib BaviSajed
    Writer
  • Abdulla Hassen Ahmed
    Producer
  • Masoud Amralla Al Ali
    Producer
  • Shavi Tabe Jaberi
    Key Cast
  • Fayezeh Soudani
    Key Cast
  • Sattar Oraki
    Music Composer
  • Mina Deris
    Singer
  • Emad Salmanian
    Cinematographer
  • Mohammad Mehdi Shokr
    Editor
  • Sara BaviSajed
    Production Designer
  • Zeynab Chandarian Pour
    Costume Designer
  • Masoud Harbi
    Makeup Designer
  • Amineh Chandarian Pour
    Makeup Designer
  • Hamzeh Hatami
    Director's First Assistant
  • Majid Nejati
    Sound
  • Mehdi Mansour
    Sound
  • Smaeel Pournasiri
    Colorist
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    عرزال
  • Project Type:
    Feature
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 17 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    December 1, 2023
  • Country of Origin:
    United Arab Emirates
  • Country of Filming:
    Iran, Islamic Republic of
  • Language:
    Arabic
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Habib BaviSajed


Habib Bavi Sajed was born in 1980 in Ahwaz, in southwestern Iran.
He has so far participated in several international festivals, such as the Abu Dhabi Film Festival, Dubai, Carthage Film Days, Kazan Film Festival, Al Jazeera Documentary Festival, Al Amal Film Festival in Sweden, and won the award Best Picture Award for the film “War Hymns” from the Documentary Film Festival in Khouribga / Morocco, best screenplay for the film “Sami” from the Kazan International Film Festival
He also produced the first Arabic film in the history of Ahwazi cinema, which was “Sami.”

Academic education:
He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Film Directing from the Ministry of Culture and Arts in Iran

Training courses:
A graduate of the international director's workshops and winner of the Golden Palm from the Cannes Film Festival, Abbas Kiarostami

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Director Statement

In my hometown of Ahwaz, where I grew up, I witnessed three events: gasoline, football, and war. Only football remained a source of enjoyment for me after the war, while oil continued to flow into our homes, on our land, and even under our feet, with no benefit to us. In Erzal there was another event that remained and still shines in my life. Love! And then came the question: Is the love of a young person different from the love of an elderly person? Is it categorical and sharp, like the difference between night and day? All these childhood events were reduced to another event, which persisted and is still shining in my life. I imagined a scenario where an elderly man asked a young girl to marry him but was turned down by her family. I questioned: Is the old man's love just for marriage, or is it to enlighten his heart, restore his youth, and open his insight? Erzal works as a guard; he protects both oil and the idea of love simultaneously. Which of them will he obtain?