The logline of The Iran Deal by Karen Stokkendal Poulsen reads starkly. “Diplomacy is founded on a fragile and slowly built material: trust,” we are told. “Federica Mogherini made a historic deal on behalf of the EU, only to see Trump tearing it apart and the world turning to war.”
Mogherini was Italy’s youngest ever Foreign Minister before she was appointed to the EU as Foreign Affairs Chief. The film revolves around one of the most difficult diplomatic cases she was ever involved in – the 2015 Iran deal, in which sanctions imposed by the United States, European Union and United Nations would be lifted in return for Iran agreeing to halt its nuclear program. In August 2018, President Trump reapplied the sanctions.
“The Iran nuclear negotiations opened a window for a new path between Iran and the Western world,” producer Vibeke Vogel of Copenhagen-based Bullitt Film tells Business Doc Europe. “It was a historic moment and also a moment of hope, that could potentially have meant that the conflict we see now between Israel and Hamas could have been avoided.”
“The film will be a thrilling and mind-blowing look into the decade-long, complicated negotiation that culminated with a final marathon negotiation in Vienna where the participants, including Iranian Foreign Affairs Minister Zarif and US Foreign Affairs Minister John Kerry, spent a full 17 days under the leadership of Mogherini,” she adds. “It´s diplomacy at work and what it means for the world we live in today.”
The film will reconstruct the 17-day long negotiation in Vienna through “cinematically strong interviews with the participating politicians, visual reconstructions and scenes reviving the moments through notebooks and on-site revisits from the hectic days,” and will use archive of Mogherini during her time as Minister of Foreign Affairs in the EU.
The Iran Deal marks Stokkendal Poulsen’s third feature documentary about international politics, having previously directed The Agreement (2014, about the Serbia/Kosovo border dispute) and the Myanmar-based On the Inside of a Military Dictatorship (2019). “These films have been shown and broadcast in some 15 territories around the world and they are characterized by their amazing access to politicians and processes, and how they turn complex political matter into human thrilling stories.” The director has a background in international studies as well as documentary filmmaking.
The project notes read how the new documentary “will be complemented with Federica’s diplomatic engagement with Israel today as well as her personal journey as a politician, taking us from her upbringing in Italy’s film society of the 1970’s to her current work to open a European College in Tirana. We follow her journey to understand her political indignation and her gradual path into being one of Italy’s most specialised people in foreign politics and the Middle East. Federica’s role in the Iran deal will make us understand what diplomacy is really about – and who she is as a person and negotiator.”
The notes continue: “With her blond pageboy haircut, always a smile and an elegant black outfit, Federica comes across as charming, and is hard not to like. She doesn’t create conflict or unnecessary hierarchies; she focuses on the case. She talks nicely to everybody but be not mistaken; a woman with such an agenda has very clear boundaries and goals. You don’t push her around, she follows her own will and plan.”
Vogel confirms that she is looking to co-produce with a Nordic partner as well as a German or French one. “We hope to build on the work and network we’ve had for our two previous films, she says. “We hope to get solid interest from several broadcasters and funds attending the Forum and we have a long list of meetings that we look forward to! We expect for the release to be in early 2027.”
