Author: Jordan Elgrably

Jordan Elgrably has written about film for more than 20 years since he first covered the Cannes Film Festival and profiled directors and actors in Europe and the U.S. He is the cofounder of the Levantine Cultural Center and the series, New Voices in Middle Eastern Cinema, which is funded in part by Hollywood Foreign Press Association. His writing on film has appeared more recently in Al Jazeera English, Alternet.org and the Levantine Review.

Underdogs, Ahmadinejad Vie for Supremacy in New Sports Doc

By 5 Mins Read

Kevin Sheppard, a flashy point guard who once played for Jacksonville University, makes his living playing overseas in countries such as Brazil, Spain, Venezuela, China and Israel. He gets an unexpected job offer—a year-long contract to head up A.S. Shiraz, a new team competing in Iran’s Super League. Thus begins his journey from a life of relative comfort and security into an uncertain new reality, playing professional basketball in Iran.Hollywood has produced dozens of sports films about heroic underdogs fighting the odds (among them The Longest Yard, Bull Durham, Remember the Titans, The Blind Side, Moneyball), but few are as…

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