ifilm's exclusive report on Iranian doc ‘Zero to Podium’

Watch ifilm's exclusive report on the Iranian documentary film ‘Zero to Podium’ directed by Sahar Mosayyebi and produced by Tahoura Abolqasemi as well as Mahtab Keramati, starring Mansourian sisters.

Below is a rough transcription of the report.

ifilm: This is the first documentary by Sahar Mosayyebi... she knew the Mansourian sisters and that was the start to making ‘Zero to Podium’.

Sahar Mosayyebi: ‘Zero to Podium’ is the first documentary that I’ve ever made. I’ve already worked in the cinema industry for years.

ifilm: This documentary took four years of the Mansourian’s entire lives and well, the filmmakers wanted to cover more years, but that didn’t happen.

Sahar Mosayyebi: The first thing we needed to start this project was research.

You have to get to know the family more. The family should accept you. The two sisters knew me already. But, the mother of the family had to know us more...

Maybe in the beginning they didn’t like a camera to enter their privacy and family life.

Well, gaining their trust and getting to know the family members took some time. Also, doing research about the direction that we intended for the movie to move toward and the point of view that we’d like to start the movie with took some time.

ifilm: When a documentary is made about someone, especially an athlete, all their moments in their lives are being captured by the lens. Some of those moments are joyous and some of them are sad.

Mansourian sister: I thought and everyone thought that this film wouldn’t be interesting anymore.

I would’ve liked to have won a gold medal and a global honor when a story was being made about my life. But I didn’t feel this way; I’d say the movie is ending, not my life. We will continue our path and the film didn’t finish for another three years. After that, the best things happened to me. Things that were even better than international competitions, sport events.

When people see the film, they’ll realize what I mean.

MG/AI/AG