Iran cinemas will screen five new films in the Persian New Year Norouz (starts March 20), which all have potential for becoming blockbusters.
Movies set for Norouz screenings will hit movie theaters across the country on Wednesday, March 16, just four days before the New Year.
The new films comprise different genres of comedy, social drama and political trailer to please various tastes of the public. It is expected that following the huge welcome to local productions in the past two years, the selected movies will attract film buffs in huge numbers and give a good head start for a profitable cinema year.
Popular Comedies
Comedies have always been popular with Iranians and have usually occupied the top ranks in the best annual as well as all-time lists. The New Year screening will have Mani Haqiqi’s ‘50 Kilos of Sour Cherry’, a star-studded romance comedy which has Farhad Ayish, Afsaneh Bayegan, Siamak Ansari, Vishka Asayesh, Mehran Ghafurian, Behnoosh Bakhtiari, Soroush Sehat, Ali Sadeqi, Saed Soheili and others in the cast.
All the actors have hit comedies in their resume and have also provided laughs for the TV series they have acted in. The well-written script is by Haqiqi and another well-known screenwriter Farhad Towhidi.
The film begins with a wedding ceremony which is interrupted by the police who come to arrest the groom, apparently a criminal. In the meantime, two of the guests, Davood and Ida, who are running away from the scene meet, which is the beginning of a series of unexpected events.
FFF Great Winner
The bitter social drama ‘Life+1 Day’ by first timer Saeed Roustaei, which was the big winner at the 34th Fajr Film Festival (FFF), Feb. 1-11, with nine Crystal Simorgh awards, is also slated for screening.
Although the theme centers on a family, from the low class of the society, which deals with different crises like addiction and poverty, the movie may pack cinema halls with film fans as it was the best film by viewers’ choice in the festival.
Payman Moaadi, Parinaz Izadyar, Navid Mohammadzadeh, Rima Raminfar, Shabnam Moqadami and Shirin Yazdanbakhsh are among the actors. Izadyar and Mohammadzadeh won the awards for the best actress and best supporting actor respectively at the FFF.
Parastui Back
‘Bodyguard’ the latest work by veteran director Ebrahim Hatamikia, is a political trailer on the story of a middle-aged man who protects high-ranking political figures. However, he has doubts when he finds out that the person he is protecting is more interested in his own personal benefits than that of the country.
Renowned actor Parviz Parastui won the best actor award for playing the main role in the film at the 34th FFF. This is Parastui’s 5th cooperation with Hatamikia whose previous collaborations resulted in successful movies like ‘The Glass Agency’ (1998), ‘The Red Ribbon’ (1999), ‘The Dead Wave’ (2001) and ‘In the Name of Father’ (2006).
Merila Zarei, Babak Hamidian, Mahmoud Azizi, Farhad Ghaemian, Amir Aqaie, Shila Khodad and Parivash Nazarieh are among the cast.
Youth-Friendly
‘The Sound and the Fury’ by Houman Seyyedi, which won the FFF jury’s special prize, is also to be screened.
The film on the subject of betrayal and murder is another bitter social drama and similar to ‘Life+1 Day.’ It was welcomed by both the public and critics, so there is a great chance for it to pull a great number of viewers to cinema halls. Its popular young actors can also be another motivation for filmgoers to buy the ticket.
The cast includes Tannaz Tabatabaei, Navid Mohammadzadeh, Behnaz Jafari and Rana Azadivar among others.
Powerful Performance
Kiumars Purahmad’s ‘Where Are My Shoes?’ starring Reza Kianian, will go on screen on March 16.
Kianian plays the role of an old factory owner who suffers from Alzheimer’s. His family members have left him, but the return of his daughter ignites a change in his life.
Film fans are excited to see Kianian in his new role, especially after Purahmad’s comment on his performance during the 34th FFF that compared his character with the role the Hollywood actress Julianne Moore played in the film ‘Still Alice’ (2014) for which she won an Oscar for the best actress, “I think she should see Kianian’s acting in the film to understand how an Alzheimer’s patients behaves”.
Roya Nonahali, Majid Mozafari, Shaqayeq Farahani, Bahreh Kian-Afshar and Mina Vahid are also in the cast.
Already a Hit
‘I am Not Salvador’, directed by Manouchehr Hadi, was the first film set for Norouz which started screening well in advance on February 24 and is already a big hit in the box office, taking over $500,000 in just 17 days.
It is about an Iranian man who is invited to take a trip to Brazil with his family. However, there he is mistaken by a local girl for her ex-fiancé called Salvador and that is the beginning of a series of funny incidents.
Iranian actors Reza Attaran, Yekta Naser, Mehdi Mehrabi and Sogol Mehrabi along with Brazilian actresses Carol Vidotti and Barry Fiocca are in the cast.
These six films followed by movies made by many other talented filmmakers, waiting to hit screens during the upcoming year, are a harbinger of a great cinematic year both in quality and at the box office.
