The short film ‘Retouch’ written and directed by film critic and director Kaveh Mazaheri won one of the top awards at the 57th Krakow Film Festival in Poland, May 28-June 4.
Competing in the International Short Film Competition section, the film grabbed the Silver Dragon award for the best short film at the Polish event, Mehr News Agency reported.
‘Retouch’ had its world premiere at the 35th Fajr Film Festival in Iran earlier this year where it won the Crystal Simorgh for Best Short Film. Its international premiere took place at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York in April.
Produced by the Iranian Young Cinema Society, the film is a surprising portrait of a woman, Maryam, who is faced with an unexpected choice one morning: the choice between life and death, freedom and captivity, the future and the past.
Born in Tehran, Mazaheri, 36, debuted as a director with the short film ‘Tweezers’ in 2007 and since then has made both documentaries and short films. His documentary ‘A Report of Mina’ (2015) was shown at many international festivals and won awards.
The festival website has described the film “emotionally engaging with a simple form and brave message” which “proves that Iranian cinema is among the most interesting in the world”.
“Kaveh Mazaheri follows in the footsteps of Jafar Panahi and Asghar Farhadi, and carefully and critically watches his own society,” it said.
Sonia Sanjari, Mohammad Ziksari, Hana Fooladifard, Azadeh Abadpoor, Hanieh Mofleh, Siamak Farsi, Foroogh Azizi, Negin Ahmadi and Shirin Harati are in the cast.
Krakow Film Festival is one of the oldest events in Europe dedicated to documentary, animated and short films.
This year, about 1800 short films, 500 documentaries and 300 animated films were submitted to the competition section.
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