Four Iranian movies are set to participate in two renowned international film festivals later this month.
The drama 'Being Born' written and directed by Mohsen Abdolvahab will vie in the competition section of the 29th Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF), slated for October 25-November 3, ISNA reported.
The story centers on a movie director and his actress wife who finds out she is pregnant with their second child. Struggling financially, they opt for an abortion as domestic tensions rise. A baby, which should make family life happier, becomes a cause for serious changes in their life.
The film is a powerful portrayal of universal themes and the problems of many societies today.
Hedayat Hashemi, Elham Korda, Reza Mortazavi, Behnaz Jafari, Roya Javidnian and Sepahrad Farzami are in the cast.
It is the international premiere of the film after its debut screening in the 34th Fajr Film Festival in February. It will compete with 15 other movies in the Japanese event.
Abdolvahab and Korda have been invited by the festival to attend the Tokyo screening.
Furthermore, in the World Focus section, there will be two commemorative screenings in honor of the late filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami who passed away in July at the age of 76.
The documentary '76 Minutes and 15 Seconds With Abbas Kiarostami' by Seifollah Samadian and one of Kiarostami's short films 'Take Me Home' will be shown.
The film is a tribute to the influential movie director by one of his closest collaborators who has documented some personal moments of Kiarostami during his many years of professional career.
Over the years, TIFF has honored Kiarostami by showing his movies including 'Under the Olive Tree' in 1994, 'Taste of Cherry' in 1997, 'The Project' in 1997, 'The Wind Will Carry Us' in 1999 and 'Shirin' in 2009.
One Shot Film
'Immortality' written and directed by Mehdi Fard Qaderi will have its global premiere at the Rome Film Fest, October 13-23.
Being Qaderi's first feature film, all the events in the movie happen on a rainy day in a train, Honaronline reported.
The special aspect about the film is that it has been filmed in just one long shot of 145 minutes without any cuts in between.
Called 'one-shot feature film' or 'continuous shot feature film', it is a full-length movie filmed in one long take by a single camera. Given the extreme difficulty of the exercise and the technical requirements for a long lasting continuous shot, such full feature films have only been possible since the advent of digital cameras.
So far only 13 movies in the world have been made in one shot, two of them Iranian. Prior to 'Immortality', Shahram Mokri made the horror film 'Fish and Cat' in 2013 in just one take and went on to achieve global acclaim.
The cast of 'Immortality' includes Manouchehr Alipour, Alireza Ostadi, Soudabeh Bayzai, Atabak Naderi, Faqihe Soltani, Ana Nemati and Maral Farjad.
Qaderi has made seven short films so far and won several international awards.
