A Man of Integrity

A principled man refuses to surrender his small farm to a powerful corporation, but his resistance draws him into a corrupt system where money, influence and violence dictate the rules.

Reza, a former university lecturer, has withdrawn from public life and moved with his wife and young son to a remote village in northern Iran, where he runs a small goldfish farm. Hoping to live quietly and independently, he soon discovers that keeping out of local power struggles is easier said than done.

A powerful corporation, backed by corrupt local officials, is determined to take control of the land and water around his farm. When Reza refuses to cooperate, seemingly minor acts of intimidation gradually escalate into a campaign designed to force him out. His commitment to honesty and principle is put to the test.

With A Man of Integrity, Mohammad Rasoulof delivers a tense and uncompromising portrait of corruption and power. Reza’s struggle is not simply against a particular company or group of officials, but against a society in which injustice has become deeply embedded.

The film premiered in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, where Rasoulof was awarded the Un Certain Regard Award for Best Film.

On 4 September, Mohammad Rasoulof joins us at De Balie for The Aesthetics of Tyranny, a conversation about power, repression and the representation of tyranny in his work. In the weeks that follow, we present a small retrospective of Rasoulof’s films, offering the opportunity to discover his remarkable body of work on the big screen.