Synopsis

In Iran, capital punishment is carried out according to Islamic law, which gives the family of the victim ownership of the offender’s life.

Day Break - based on a compilation of true stories and shot inside Tehran's century-old prison - revolves around the imminent execution of Mansour, a man found guilty of murder.



When the family of the victim repeatedly fails to show up on the appointed day, Mansour’s execution is postponed again and again.

Stuck inside the purgatory of his own mind, he waits as time passes on without him, caught between life and death, retribution and forgiveness.

Cast: Hossein Yari, Zabi Afshar, Atash Taghipour, Maryam Amirjallali, Hoda Nasseh

Toronto (Discovery)



Director's View:

When I started working on the story for this film in 2002, the thing that I was most attracted to was not necessarily the character of Mansour and who he was or where he came from but rather the situation that he found himself in.

I wanted to make the story communicate universally to the audience. I wanted them to relate to Mansour’s dilemma. Not everyone has committed murder but we have all made wrong choices, choices that perhaps were rash and passionate, propelling us into situations that we could not have imagined and for which we have not control over.

It was important that I convey the passage of time and the physical space that Mansour was trapped in while waiting for his execution day to arrive. The psychological intensity of not knowing his fate dragged him through each and every moment of that experience with minute detail.

It is the details of Mansour’s day-to-day experiences that propel the story along. The struggle inside his mind to come to terms with what he has done and how he has affected his family are ubiquitously experienced by the audience.

It is this commonly understood situation that brings out the universality of the story makes the film imminently imperative for everyone.