Director and screenwriter Fatima Geza Abdollahyan is at once proud of her Iranian heritage, yet tired of endless media reports that put more distance between the West and Iran.

"You see the big problems in any country, and you're shocked," she said during a recent interview from her Munich home. "So many directors covering a foreign country want to make the West cry at injustice. They rarely instead try to take away the distance between subject and audience."

Her sentiment is even more pronounced in the wake of her native country's massive protests against government fraud following the June election last year. Much like her Sundance documentary film "Kick In Iran," reports of such protests shorten the distance between Iran and the West.

Born in Frankfurt, Abdollahyan has spent most of her 32 years in Germany. Between brief trips to Iran, she studied politics before entering film school at Munich's University of Television and Film. Her documentary film follows 19-year-old Taekwondo star Sarah Khoshjamal on her quest for Olympic fame in the months before the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. Khoshjamal has since become well-known in Iran as the first Iranian woman to qualify for the Olympics.

Sarah trains and competes under the religious restrictions of Islamic Iran, but it's ironic how your film emphasizes the bond and power of women by focussing on Sarah's relationship with her female coach.

This is not new. Women have always played a pivotal role in Iranian history. They were instrumental in bringing the reformist Khatami to power in 1997, and they're a huge force in the current protests beyond the death of [music student and protestor] Neda Agha-Soltan. In every society and at every time in history, the conditions of women are a prime indicator of the democratic and civil conditions of society.

How conscious was Sarah of pushing the envelope in her own country?

Reaching the Olympics was breaking news that reached everyone, even in the smallest village. She and her trainer knew they were role models, but they were also very down-to-earth. On the one hand, Iran had a heroine. On the other, it's a problem to expose women publicly. Upon news of her qualification, they broadcast some footage, and even this was new.

Returning to Iran to direct this film, did you feel like a foreigner in your own country?

Not at all. People can see by the way you walk and talk that you have not been living in the country for a long time. At the same time, there was no doubt I was Iranian. Even the taxi drivers would accept me as Iranian. You learn a lot about societal codes in this sort of back-and-forth. I was a little arrogant at times, not in the way I approached people but in my expectations. I had to break down my expectations of what I thought of people and women. It was very tough to admit that, so I questioned myself throughout. Are the things I want to find really how they are? Am I seeking confirmation, or am I ready to accept things different from the way they are? That's the difficult thing about making a documentary.

bfulton@sltrib.com