The Iranian film ‘A Minor Leap Down,’ directed by Hamed Rajabi was chosen on Friday for the jury prize in the Panorama Section of the International Federation of Film Critics or Federation Internationale de la Presse Cinematographique (FIPRESCI), at the international Berlin Film Festival 2015. The Berlinale closing ceremony on Saturday (Feb. 14) will award the prizes in the various sections.
The film is simple but substantial enough to warrant a continuous presence on the film circuit after its Panorama title at the Berlinale, with lead actress Negar Javaherian’s “nuanced turns providing an additional boost to its international surge,” reports honaronline.
The drama is about Nahal, a 30-year-old woman who, in her fourth month of pregnancy, learns that her baby has died and she has to undergo a curettage abortion; for her there is no solace. Her mother (Mehri Aleagha) offers minimal support, while her young sister is more interested in mixing with her friends than answering her calls. The worst culprit, of course, is her husband, Babak (Rambod Javan) who is more preoccupied with his promotion, a bigger flat, a new car and the stars appearing on TV. Conveniently hammering Nahal with the idea that she’s depressed, his solution is twofold: see a shrink, and then go and shop her sadness away (on his credit card).
Here, the presence of a “foreign object” in Nahal’s body is a MacGuffin of sorts: it’s actually the cacophony of the mob which is driving her over the edge – and Nahal slowly rebels against the chattering class bringing her down.
Rajabi, the film director and screenwriter, and Hoseyn Abolsedgh, the sound designer has come up with an effective ambience to highlight the repressive environment, with a soundtrack composed of omnipresent (but unseen) whispering gossip-mongers and heightened city sounds.
The film producers are Majid Barzgar and Saeed Armand.
Leading Festival
The Berlin International Film Festival is one of the world’s leading film festivals. It is held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in West Berlin in 1951 the festival has been celebrated annually in February since 1978.
The festival is composed of seven different sections. Films are chosen in each category by a section director with the advice of a committee of film experts. Categories include: Competition, Panorama, Forum, Generation, Perspektive Deutsches Kino, Berlinale Shorts and Retrospective.
Panorama comprises new independent and art house films that deal with “controversial subjects or unconventional aesthetic styles”. Films in the category are intended to provoke discussion.
The Forum section comprises experimental and documentary films from around the world with a particular emphasis on screening works by younger filmmakers. There is no format or genre restrictions and films in this section do not compete for awards.
In this year’s 6-day festival, 300 emerging film professionals from 75 countries and a variety of fields met with some 100 renowned experts. In addition, the participants had a wide range of opportunities to continue developing their film projects.
