The joint movie production of Iran and Germany ‘Paradise’ directed by Ali Atshani won three top prizes at the Chelsea Film Festival in New York.
The 2016 edition of the annual event, October 13-16, wrapped up awarding three major awards to ‘Paradise’ including Best Director for Atshani, Best Actor for Javad Ezzati and Best Supporting Actor for Mehran Rajabi, Mehr News Agency reported.
The drama, which had its North American premiere, is about two young theological students who plan to take part in a university seminar in Germany. Mohamad Ali Najafian, Saman Saffari and Bita Atshani from Iran as well as Olivia Burkhardt and Matheus Matts from Germany are in the cast.
As Iran’s sole representative to the festival, ‘Paradise’ competed with 21 other films in the main competition category of feature films. The film was screened to a warm reception and followed by a Q&A session with the director.
The festival is an event consisting of four days of screenings of independent shorts, feature-lengths and documentaries from emerging directors.
As its director said, the film which has been shot in Iran, Germany and Spain is waiting for the screening permit from the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance for local release, and he expects permission to be granted before the next Fajr Film Festival in February 2017.
