Variety Unveils First Clip from Ali Asgari's Venice Competition Entry 'A Bit of Light'
Variety has exclusively revealed the first clip from Iranian director Ali Asgari's new film A Bit of Light, offering audiences an early look at the sixth feature from a film-maker whose work has moved through every major European festival over the past decade (Variety).
The film is set in contemporary Iran and follows a disillusioned doctor who, after being arrested and having his medical practice shut down, spends one final day visiting his siblings and mother. In the clip, a character says: "This Trump guy is threatening to bomb here every day" — a line that lands the film squarely in the geopolitical anxieties of the present moment (Variety).
A Bit of Light marks Asgari's first selection for the Venice Film Festival's main competition, the Venezia 83 Competition, according to the Biennale's official 2026 programme (La Biennale di Venezia). The festival runs from 2 to 12 September, with the film's Persian title listed as Kami nour on the Biennale site. A pass-holders screening is scheduled for 10 September in the Sala Grande, the festival's flagship auditorium (La Biennale di Venezia).
Asgari's previous films have toured the circuit widely. Disappearance screened at Venice in 2017, Until Tomorrow at the Berlinale in 2022, Terrestrial Verses in Cannes' Un Certain Regard section in 2023, Higher Than Acidic Clouds at IDFA in 2024, and Divine Comedy in Venice's Horizons strand in 2025 (Variety). This year's promotion to the main competition places him among the roughly two dozen titles vying for the Golden Lion, Venice's top prize.
The cast is led by Misagh Zareh, with Sadaf Asgari, Forouzan Jamshidnejad, Ramtin Daghigh and Mina Rahimzadeh rounding out the ensemble. Lead production comes from Milad Khosravi's Seven Springs Pictures, with co-producers including Sunny Independent Pictures, Zoe Films, Good Measure Productions, Haurvatat Film, MeMo Films, Salt for Sugar Films and Avantika Singh Desbouvries. It is an Iran, Switzerland and Italy co-production (La Biennale di Venezia).
On the business side, the pieces have been falling into place for weeks. Paris- and Berlin-based sales company Salaud Morisset boarded worldwide sales rights — meaning the company handles deals to distribute the film territory by territory across the globe — ahead of the Venice premiere (Deadline). French distributor Haut et Court acquired rights for France in late July (Screen Daily). Italy's Teodora Film Distribuzione will handle the release in that country, according to Variety (Variety).
For a film that follows a single man's final day moving through his family, the sales activity is brisk — festival buzz and a first-clip debut tend to draw distributor attention before a film even reaches its premiere screening. Venice, which sits alongside Cannes and Berlin as one of the three top-tier European film festivals, is a marketplace as much as a showcase: the films selected for its main competition arrive with the visibility that buyers and sellers need to close deals. A Bit of Light screens on 10 September.
