Iran Films Win 4 Awards in India

Three Iranian films participating in the 9th Jaipur International Film Festival (JIFF) in India won four awards which were presented at the closing ceremony on January 11.

Competing in the Best Feature Film category, the movie ‘Inversion’ written and directed by Behnam Behzadi won two awards, Red Rose Award for Best Film, as well as the Best Original Screenplay Award, ISNA reported.

Currently on screen in Iranian cinemas across the country, ‘Inversion’ debuted in the Un Certain Regard section of the 69th Cannes Film Festival in May 2016 and collected positive reviews. Since then, it has been shown in several festivals in Vancouver, Hamburg, Cambridge and Paris and welcomed by the public and critics.

The film title refers to the phenomenon in which sudden temperature changes trap pollution.  With Tehran’s smog levels soaring, a single 35-year-old woman, Niloofar, is facing a dilemma; should she leave the city with her mother, who is having trouble breathing, or stay behind to pursue a potential love interest.

Sahar Dowlatshahi, Ali Mosaffa, Setareh Pesyani, Shirin Yazdanbakhsh and Toufan Mehrdadian are the cast.

Another winning film from Iran was ‘Arvand’ directed by Pourya Azarbayjani which won the award for the Best War and Peace Film at the event.

The film is based on a true story of 175 soldiers whose bodies were discovered after three decades. In the drama, a former soldier is tormented by the loss of his comrades during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war. So he sets out to search for his fallen brothers, years after they have been killed in action.

The cast includes Saeed Aghakhani, Pantea Panahiha, Mehrdad Sedighian and Tannaz Tabatabai.

  Short Film Winner

Also in the Short Film Category, ‘Kech’ (meaning daughter in Kurdish) directed by Mehrdad Hasani won the Best Short Film Award.

The short production, which won another prize at the 15th Third Eye Asian Film Festival in Mumbai, India, two weeks ago, narrates the story of a nurse who sacrifices herself to save a child in a war zone. Paria Vaziri and Fatemeh Galosalari are the cast.

The JIFF is the world’s fastest growing film festival, held every year in India’s ‘Pink City’ as Jaipur is known, because of the color of the stone exclusively used in its numerous palaces and historical buildings.

The festival promotes new movie makers, exchange of knowledge, information, ideas and culture between India and other nations in context of their social and cultural ethos. It also promotes friendship and cooperation among peoples of the world through the medium of films and documentaries.