The first edition of the Cine-Iran Festival of Toronto (CIFT) was held November 27-29 in the Canadian city screening 12 feature films from contemporary Iran cinema.
The movies, all having won international awards, were shown in three days and each was followed with a panel discussion attended by Iranian cineastes about the films and independent movies in Iranian cinema, Mehr News Agency reported.
The festival opened with the screening of ‘I Am Diego Maradona’ by Bahram Tavakoli and ‘Death of Fish’ directed by Seyed Ruhollah Hejazi, was later presented.
On Saturday, five other films were shown, ‘Night Shift’ by Niki Karimi, ‘Confessions of My Dangerous Mind’ by Hooman Seyedi, ‘Ashkan, the Charmed Ring, and Other Stories’ by Shahram Mokri, ‘Jameh Daran’ by Hamidreza Qotbi and ‘I Want to Be a King’ by Mehdi Ganji.
On the final day, ‘Taboo’ by Khosro Masumi, Soheila Golestani’s Two, Abbas Rafei’s ‘Oblivion Season’, Payman Haqqani’s ‘316’ and ‘What’s the Time in Your World?’ by Safi Yazdanian were screened.
Director Shahram Mokri, noted Iranian actress Sareh Bayat and actor Hamed Behdad were present at the event.
The festival aims to bring the most acclaimed Iranian films of the year to Toronto screens in an effort to present a comprehensive cross-section of this national cinema. CIFT’s films exhibit the most prominent filmmakers and cinematic movements in Iran and are selected from a wide range of genres and modes, from documentaries and artistic films to domestic commercial hits.
