Archive for category: News

Date: 10 June 2017

Iranian cinema has proved its mettle in the world by producing powerful dramas, praised globally and won major awards at top festivals.

Now, the 3rd FilMadrid International Cinema Festival in Spain, June 8-17, has devoted a special section to an aspect of Iran cinema, which despite being very popular inside the country, has remained mostly unknown to the rest of the world. The Spanish festival has concentrated on Iranian comedies and absurdist movies, ISNA reported.

The section attempts to focus on movies normally overlooked by westerners, who know Iran cinema with more contemplative films of Abbas Kiarostami, Jafar Panahi and Asghar Farhadi.

Films presented by FilMadrid at this year’s edition provide the foreign audience with the current trends in Persian cinema. Humor is employed as a means to express social criticism by filmmakers like that of many other world directors.

The retrospective series includes 8 movies from Dariush Mehrjui, ‘The Tenants’ (1986) and ‘Mum’s Guest’ (2004); Mani Haqiqi, ‘A Dragon Arrives’ (2016), ‘Modest Reception’ (2012), ‘Men at Work’ (2006) and ‘Abadan’ (2003); Shahram Mokri, ‘Fish & Cat’ (2013) and Ali Ahmadzadeh, ‘Atomic Heart’ (2014).

Issue of Abortion

‘Being Born’ directed by Mohsen Abdolvahab is competing with 9 other films at the official section of the Granada International Film Festival ‘Cines del Sur’ in Spain, June 3-10.

The film deals with the universal issue of abortion. What is riveting about it is the director’s ability to tell a story fraught with angst and emotion with the least of melodrama.

The cast includes Hedayat Hashemi, Elham Korda, Esmaeil Pourreza, Reza Mortazavi, Roya Javidnia, Niki Nassirian and Aida Sarshar among others.

The realism and the humanity shown by the characters of the film has earned it the Jury Prize at the Vesoul International Film Festival.

Tributes to Kiarostami

Four films from Iran are also present at the 16th Transilvania International Film Festival in Romania, 2-11 June 2017.

In competition, ‘Simulation’ (2017) directed by Abed Abest is vying for the top prize along with 11 more movies.

The film, screened at the forum section of Berlinale in February, tells the story of three young men who decide to pay a visit to an older man they only know vaguely, but things do not go on as smoothly as they had thought. The director has also acted in his work beside Vahid Rad and Majid Yousefi.

‘Immortality’ by Mehdi Fard-Qaderi is screened out of competition. The event also pays tribute to the late auteur Kiarostami, who passed away last July, by showing his last short film ‘Take Me Home’ (2016) and the documentary ‘76 Minutes and 15 Seconds With Abbas Kiarostami’ made by his close friend and collaborator Seifollah Samadian.

The documentary is a portrait of an artist, whose exceptional approach to art and life defines him as one of the most ardent admirers of life itself. The film shares undiscovered moments of Kiarostami’s life and work through the shots selected out of hundreds of hours of footage filmed during 25 years of friendship between the director and Kiarostami.

Large Film Festival

A total of 6 Persian movies (feature, short and animation) are participating in the 43rd annual Seattle International Film Festival in the US, 18 May – 11 June 2017.

The largest film festival in the US and one of the biggest in the world, the event shows 400 films in a period of over 25 days.

Iranian feature films include Mani Haqiqi’s ‘A Dragon Arrives’ (2016), Behnam Behzadi’s ‘Inversion’ (2016), Mitra Tabrizian’s ‘Gholam’ (2017, made in England) and Abbas Kiarostami’s ‘Taste of Cherry’ (1997, winner of the Palm d’Or).

‘Lonely Cat Meowing’ by Nina Zarabi (2016) is the short film and the Iranian animation is ‘The Servant’ by Farnoosh Abedi (2017).

‘Yellow’ Goes to East Asia

The feature-length drama ‘Yellow’ directed by Mostafa Taghizadeh will compete in the 20th Shanghai International Film Festival in China, one of the largest film festivals in East Asia, 17-26 June 2017.

The 93-minute film features Bahram Radan, Sareh Bayat, Mehrdad Sedighian, Bahareh Kianafshar, Shahram Haghighatdoust, Amir-Ali Nabavian and Ali Salehi among others.

This is Taqizadeh’s first feature after making several short films. It was premiered at the 35th Fajr Film Festival in February and is slated for local screening in summer. The story centers on a group of young people living in modern Tehran.

Source: Financial Tribune

Date: 7 June 2017

The Iranian puppet play ‘Count to One’ has won two awards at the 30th International Theatrical Festival Valise in Lomza, Poland, 30 May – 2 June 2017.

A production of puppet troupe ‘Yas-e Tamam’, led by director and playwright Zahra Sabri, the play won the awards for the best directing and best production design, competing with 13 other theatrical works from Russia, Germany, Poland, Italy and Spain among others.

Based on the work by Persian poet Omar Khayyam, ‘Count to One’ is about three soldiers in no man’s land who decide to stop fighting. To express themselves, they start making sculptures with mud. Mohsen Shahpiri, Hossein Divandari and Reza Bahrami are in the cast.

The play has so far participated in several international events, including the 10th International Festival of Puppet Theater and Animated Films for Adults in Warsaw, Poland; Big, Small World International Puppet Theater Festival in Munich, Germany; and the Swedish Biennial for Performing Arts in Malmo, all in 2015, among others.

Valise is an artistic and cultural event, well-known and well-established in the international calendar of cultural events in Europe. It aims to present new trends in the theater for children, teenagers and adults and create a platform for sharing ideas and experiences between creators and audience.

Source: Financial Tribune

Date: 31 May 2017

Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof’s ‘A Man of Integrity’ won the top prize in the Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes Film Festival, beating a diverse international selection of 17 other titles to the honor.
Rasoulof’s sixth feature film centers on a goldfish farmer battling corporate oppression in northern Iran. Variety critic Alissa Simon praised the film as a “tense, enraging drama about corruption and injustice,” noting strong international distribution prospects for the work.

The award was presented by American actress Uma Thurman, the section’s jury president.

For writer-director Rasoulof, 45, a leading figure in Iran’s independent cinema, it was the third time in the Un Certain Regard section; he previously competed with 2011’s ‘Goodbye’ and 2013’s ‘Manuscripts Don’t Burn’, winning Best Director Award for the former.

The Un Certain Regard is a separate section from the main contest at Cannes that recognizes younger talent and innovative filmmaking. Iran participated with five films at this year’s Cannes Festival (May 17-28) which marked the 70th anniversary of the event, and won three awards.

In addition to the latest award, Iran also won the second prize of the Cinefondation Competition section for the short film ‘AniMal’ directed by filmmaker brothers Bahram and Behnam Ark, as well as ‘Animation That Matters Award’ at Animation Day of the festival for the feature-length animated film ‘Release From Heaven’ by Ali Noor Oskouei.

Source: Financial Tribune

Date: 20 May 2017

70th Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday, May 17, in the resort city of Cannes, France.

Farhadi, whose film ‘The Salesman’ won two awards at last year’s edition, described the festival as a “place where cultures speak to one another.”

Politics and US President Donald Trump loomed large amidst the cinematic experience. No one mentioned the beleaguered American president by name, but there were allusions to his policies, particularly the ones that target artists and immigrants, Variety reported.

Farhadi – who made headlines after refusing to attend the Academy Awards in February following Trump’s temporary ban on immigrants from seven Muslim majority countries, including Iran, from entering the US – suggested that Cannes, with its multiculturalism, stands in stark relief to the xenophobia taking place in other parts of the world.

“Cannes is a place where cultures speak to each other and respect each other,” he said. “It is a place where people enthusiastically dialogue with each other about cinema and share memorable moments.”

The Iranian filmmaker said he hoped the films shown during the 12-day event would shed light on the “human conditions” of people around the world.

Seventeen-year-old actress Lily-Rose Depp, daughter of famous actor Johnny Depp, accompanied Farhadi, 45, as a symbol of youth, at the opening ceremony.

All Are Stars in a Way

Italian actress Monica Bellucci, the host of the ceremony, used her moment on stage to wave the flag of artistic expression. “We are all stars in our own way,” she said. “Some stars are banned from shining and expressing themselves. Each star has to find back the freedom to speech and the light it deserves.”

Later at the event, Farhadi finally received his Oscar for best foreign language film, nearly three months after he won the award for ‘The Salesman’ at the 89th Academy Awards ceremony.

According to the Entertainment Weekly, Meredith Shea, an Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences representative, traveled to the 2017 Cannes Film Festival to present Farhadi and French producer Alexandre Mallet-Guy with the accolade for their work.

Iran is taking part in the 70th Cannes Festival with five films in different sections. The festival concludes on May 28.

Source: Financial Tribune

Date: 13 May 2017

Iranian director Sajjad Mousavi managed to win the Best Short Film Award at the 4th International Motion Festival (IMF) in Cyprus.

Mousavi won the prize for his short film ‘The Salt Man’ in the university student section.

Films from the US, France and the Netherlands were also nominated for the prize of this section.

The 15-minute flick has grabbed numerous awards at international festivals in the UK, the US, Poland, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Armenia and the UAE.

The film tells the story of Saeed Aram, a genius artist, who is left unsupported and is obliged to work in a salt mine with his six-year-old girl.

The story begins when he receives statuettes from various festivals, displaying his creativity.

Using a symbolic language, this artistic film tries to present new ideas to the audience, and make the audience contemplate. Family, children, daughter, genius, human rights, nature, and life, are the themes of this film, which is appropriate for all classes. The film was produced over two years, using the best cinematic equipment, and despite all limitations.

Over 1,000 animations from 48 countries were submitted to the festival of which 78 films were selected for screening in the festival.

The US, Germany, Cyprus, Spain and the UK also received awards in other sections of the festival.

The 4th IMF is underway from 11 to 14 May 2017.

It is organized by the Department of Arts of the European University Cyprus in Nicosia, Cyprus.

The IMF aims to open a forum for the presentation of the most contemporary and most creative works in the world of motion and thus to be established as the pioneering festival that promotes innovative and cutting-edge work.

The IMF is the platform for showcasing innovative motion art videos, spanning from motion graphics, to 2D and 3D animation, video art and shorts.

The IMF welcomes productions from all over the world and at the same time strongly encourages the participation of Cypriot productions.