Rakhshan Bani-Etemad’s drama ‘Tales’ won the Best Film award at the Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF), India.
Competing with 12 other movies in the international competition section, the Iranian film received the Golden Royal Bengal Tiger Award from the 20th edition of the Indian festival, held November 10-17, ISNA reported.
This year’s festival also paid tributes to the well-known Iranian actress/director Niki Karimi who was also one of the five jurors of the international competition section.
Movies from Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Switzerland, Czech Republic and Afghanistan among others took part in the festival. Founded in 1995, the Kolkata film festival is the second oldest international film event in India.
‘Tales’ has participated in a number of prestigious film festivals this year and won the Best Screenplay award at the 71st Venice Film Festival two months ago.
The movie is a transition to seven lives and the kind of people who live under hard, but not exceptional social conditions, similar to what is faced by many members of society. It’s a tale of men and women of every stratum, about their passion and love, and their hopes to overcome life’s difficulties.
The stellar cast of the film includes Fatemeh Motamedaria, Peiman Moaadi, Baran Kosari, Farhad Aslani, Mohammadreza Forootan, Golab Adineh, Mehdi Hashemi, Atefeh Razavi, Habib Rezaei, Hassan Majooni, Mehraveh Sharifinia, Shahrokh Forootanian, Rima Raminfar, Babak Hamidian, and Negar Javaherian.
Breakthrough Role
Jury member Karimi was born and raised in Tehran. She started her professional career in 1990, when she was cast as a young bride in Behrooz Afkhami’s hit film ‘The Bride’. It proved to be a breakthrough role. Following this part, she worked with many Iranian filmmakers such as Dariush Mehrjuii, Masoud Kimiai, etc. She was nominated for best actress award in Fajr Film Festival in 2011 for ‘I Am His Wife’ (2011), directed by ‘Mostafa Shaysteh’. She has acted in 40 movies in about 25 years.
Karimi has won many awards nationally and internationally such as San Sebastian Film Festival award for best actress. She was also recently on the jury of renowned film festivals, including the Locarno International Film Festival, Thessaloniki International Film Festival, Berlin Film Festival and also the 60th Cannes Film Festival.
Expanding on her career as an actor, she started directing films in 2001. The same year, she won her first award as a director in Iran’s Rain Film Festival for her documentary ‘To Have or Not to Have’. At the 2005 Cannes Film Festival, she was nominated for her feature film directorial debut ‘One Night’. Her third film as director, ‘Final whistle’ (2011), won three awards at the Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema in Vesoul, France. She has directed four films up till now.
In addition to films, Karimi in 1999 released her first translation work, Marlon Brando’s biography ‘Songs My Mother Taught Me’, translated from English to Persian.
