Yama Rahimi

This past weekend I had the chance to attend one of the more beautiful settings for a film fest. The Sonoma Film Festival offers such a splendid backdrop that makes it difficult to trade it, and the tasty food and delicious wines donated by local restaurants and wineries in for, a darkened environment to watch a slate of films.

Nikita Mikhalkov (Burnt by the Sun) masterfully updates Sidney Lumet's classic "12 Angry Men" as a piece that is both timely and relevant. A jury of a dozen, old Russian men are about to delibrate the fate of Chechen boy who apparently killed his Russian adoptive father. That would be the equivalent to having white American men decide the fate of a Middle-Eastern Boy in post 9/11 USA.

I was a screenwriter doing silly instruction films for TV but I wanted to get out and they said you can't unless you go to the army therapist and tell them everything you have been through during your army service. I did that and did ten sessions and was pretty much amazed at the end to hear my story for the first time. Not by the story but the fact that I never heard it before. It was amazing then came the dog dreams of my friend and I started to talk to other friends and decided I wanted to make a film about it.

"I was eleven years old when this story unfolded in the news. I was watching this man's image on TV without knowing who he was and the number of days he was on a hunger strike but did not understand what was going on. My parents told me that this person was hurt because he was not eating and that equation was very strange to me."

Director Laurent Cantet’s demonstrates the daily grind of one teacher taking on a group of very opinionated youths. Cultures clash, and feelings get hurt. After Ressources humaines (1999), Time Out (2001) and 2005’s Heading South, it’s safe to say that Cantet feels best at home when there is human conflict.