The Line

DCP Available

After several festival rejections, Mani, a young filmmaker, begins shooting a film against his own artistic beliefs. But as production falls apart, the vision of the film he truly wants to make starts to appear before him, forcing him to choose between recognition and remaining faithful to his own cinematic voice.

  • Arad Navizi
    Director
    "The Thing" (2022)
  • Arad Navizi
    Writer
    "The Thing" (2022)
  • Arad Navizi
    Producer
    "The Thing" (2022)
  • Pooyan Sholevar
    Producer
    Berlinale Talent 2024
  • Armin Khoshnik
    Key Cast
    "Mani"
  • Negin Firouzmanesh
    Key Cast
    "Negin"
  • Paniz Khoshnik
    Key Cast
    "Aram"
  • Morteza Agha Hosseini
    Key Cast
    "Siamak"
  • Hossein Mehrali
    Key Cast
    "Jahan"
  • Fatemeh Tavakoli
    Key Cast
    "Asma"
  • Alireza Yalveh
    Key Cast
    "Mahdi"
  • Soroush Alizadeh
    Director of Photography
    "White Winged Horse" (2020), "Numb" (2023), "The Great Yawn" (Khamyazeye Bozorg) (2024)
  • Sara Mozhdeh
    Set Designer
  • Sara Mozhdeh
    Costume Designer
  • Hadi Manavipour
    Production Sound Recordist
    "Retouch" (2017), "Funfair" (2019), "Botox" (2020)
  • Pooyan Sholevar
    Film Editor
    Berlinale Talent 2024 | “Gambler” (2015), “Retouch” (2017), “Like a Good Kid” (Mesle Bache Adam) (2017), “Fault Line” (2018), “The American Bull” (2018), “Red Panda” (2019), “Fun Fair” (2019), “Spotted Yellow” (2019), “All the Time” (2020), “Botox” (2020), “Great Dive” (2021), “Barter” (2021), “Orthodontics” (2021), “Mahakan” (2021), “The Zoo” (2022), “It Turns Blue” (2023), “A Long Walk” (2023)
  • Ramin Abousedgh
    Supervising Sound Editor
    “Zero to Podium” (2016), “Exam” (2019), “The Rotation” (2020), “Song Sparrow” (2020), “Mahakan” (2021), “Deer” (2021), “The Thing” (2022), “Silent House” (2022), “File” (2022), “Wide Angle” (2022)
  • Mahdi Rismani
    Composer
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    خط (Romanized: Khat)
  • Project Type:
    Experimental, Short, Student
  • Genres:
    Self-reflexive Surreal Fiction
  • Runtime:
    15 minutes 31 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    April 1, 2026
  • Country of Origin:
    Iran
  • Country of Filming:
    Iran
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9, 2.39:1
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    Yes - Iran University of Art (Tehran University of Art)
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Available
Director Biography - Arad Navizi

Arad Navizi (born in Tehran, Iran, 2003) is an Iranian filmmaker, actor, and film distributor. He received a diploma in Drama from the Young Cinematographers Association Art School in 2021 and later graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Cinema Directing from Iran University of Art (Tehran University of Art). He began acting in theatre productions and short films in 2018 before developing his filmmaking practice independently.
His first short film, The Thing (Original title: «شِیء» | Romanized: Shey), was made in 2022 and received several international accolades, including Best Student Film at the Garden State Film Festival and an award at the Josiah Media Festival. His second short film, The Line (Original title: «خط» | Romanized: Khat), was produced in 2026.

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Director Statement

"I am a filmmaker; I don’t make the film; I am the film."
Catherine Breillat

The Line was born from a question that has followed me as a young filmmaker: how much of ourselves are we willing to abandon in order to be seen?

The film follows Mani, a filmmaker who begins shooting a work shaped by expectations rather than conviction. Around him, everything is unstable: the production is collapsing, the actors are losing their emotional truth, time is running out, and the film he is making no longer feels like his own. Gradually, another film begins to appear before him, not as an idea, but as a vision.

For me, The Line is about authorship, artistic pressure, and the fragile moment when a filmmaker must decide whether to follow the image expected from him or the image that still belongs to him. It is a film about remaining faithful to one’s own cinematic voice, even when recognition seems to demand otherwise.