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‘Life and a Day’ Wins Best Film Award at Geneva Festival

Payman Maadi (L) and Parinaz Izadyar in the movie
Payman Maadi (L) and Parinaz Izadyar in the movie

The Iranian movie ‘Life and a Day’ written and directed by Saeed Roostaee won an award for the best feature film at the 22nd Geneva International Film Festival Tous Ecrans in Switzerland, at the closing ceremony of the event on November 12.

The movie competed with nine other films in the International Competition section of the festival and bagged its first international award at its international premiere in Geneva, ISNA reported.

“A genuine feature film, sharp, witty and vibrant, which moved us with its accuracy, scope and energy,” the jury statement read.

“The filmmaker presents the poignant chronicles of a family and its issues. Taboo topics, addressed with shrewdness and subtlety, in a culture and a country that cannot leave anyone indifferent.”

Running for 115 minutes, the bitter social drama is centered on a family, from the lower class of the society, and deals with different crises like addiction and poverty.

The first feature film by the young Roustaee, 26, ‘Life and a Day’ has scooped almost all major awards in the local festivals including nine Crystal Simorgh awards at the 34th Fajr Film Festival in February, four Hafez Awards at the 16th Picture World Cinema and TV Ceremony in July and seven more awards at the 17th celebration of House of Cinema in September.

It has taken in over $3 million at the box-office this year and is ranked fifth in the list of all-time bestsellers in Iran. Payman Maadi, Navid Mohammadzadeh, Parinaz Izadyar, Shirin Yazdanbakhsh, Rima Raminfar and Shabnam Moqadami are in the cast.

 Best TV Series

In the International TV Series Competition at the Geneva festival, the award for the best TV series went to ‘The Night Of’ in which ‘Life and a Day’ lead actor Maadi plays a supporting role. The series was aired in July on HBO (Home Box Office), a US premium cable and satellite television network. In the series, he stars as Salim Khan, a Pakistani taxi driver who loses his business after his son takes his cab out the night he is accused of murder.

The Geneva festival has been exploring the relationship between cinema, television and new forms of digital creation since 1995, with a program based on one simple idea: “Authors are at the heart of audiovisual creation and their viewpoints are expressed through our screens”.

As a place where all genres and disciplines meet, the festival fosters an attitude of celebration and experimentation. Six competitive sections enforce the discovery of new narratives and emerging talents while the out-of-competition program celebrates the diversity and wealth of audiovisual arts.

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