Based on a story idea by Abbas Kiarostami, Men at Work tells the hilarious story of four old friends who, driving back from a failed skiing trip, encounter a strange, enormous rock. The men's frivolous attempt to dislodge the rock gradually disintegrates into a tale of betrayal, defeat, and renewed hope.
“Shooting Men at Work was hell. We had no money. The weather seemed intent on screwing us. The snow was melting even though the temperature was chilling us to the bone. What were we thinking, shooting a film that took place in a single location, over the course of a few hours, in the middle of nowhere? Maybe it's about the difficulty of making a film in conditions that make you want to throw yourself off a cliff, tied to a huge rock.”

Screenplay Mani Haghighi
Photography (colour) Koohyar Kalari
Editing Mastaneh Mohajer
Sound Mohsen Rowshan, Amin Mirshekari
Cast Attila Pesyani, Mahmoud Kalari, Ahmad Hamed, Omid Rohani, Fatemeh Motamed Arya, Reza Kianian, Mahnaz Afshar, Mitra Gorji, Rana Azadivar, Shima Zareh, Kazem Darvish
Production Aftab Negaran Productions Company, Mohammad-Reza Takhtkeshian
Year of production 2006
Running time 78’
Format DV CAM

Mani Haghighi

Mani Haghighi was born in Tehran in 1969. He studied philosophy in Canada before returning to Iran to make films. In 1997 he conducted a series of interviews with Iranian painters on the effects of the Iran-Iraq War on their work. These conversations became the basis for his 2001 documentary To Stay. In 2003 Haghighi made his first feature film, Abadan. The film was quickly banned in Iran, but was screened at the Singapore International and Tribeca Festivals to wide acclaim. Men at Work is his second feature film. It won the Best Screenplay Prize of Tehran Fajr Film Festival in 2006. In the same year, Haghighi was also nominated for the Best Screenplay Prize for Chahar Shanbeh Soori (Wednesday's Fireworks), a script he co-wrote with director Asghar Farhadi.