Top 200 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2023: #134. Milad Alami’s Opponent

Motståndaren

For his sophomore feature, Iranian-Scandi (grew up in Sweden and currently lives in Denmark) filmmaker Milad Alami hits the mat tackling stereotypical images of Middle-Eastern men. Opponent (Motståndaren) is a psychological drama set in the wrestling community where masculinity, intimacy and violence are commonplace. The project won a post-production prize at Les Arcs Festival’s Work-In-Progress section. This was produced by Sweden’s Tangy and Norway’s Ape&Bjørn. Payman Maadi (from Farhadi’s A Separation) toplines.

Gist: The story is about a man who is forced to flee Iran because of rumours about him, who tries to settle his family in northern Sweden.

Release Date/Prediction: A major film festival should be in the cards – perhaps competing for the Golden Bear.