The main international competition section of the 36th Fajr International Film Festival, April 19-27 Tehran, will comprise 15 feature movies (12 foreign and three domestic productions).
According to the festival website, the names of only four movies in the competition have been announced, which are among the latest productions of Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey and a joint film from Bulgaria, Germany and France.
‘Dovlatov’ is a 2018 Russian biopic about the Russian journalist and writer Sergei Dovlatov (1941-1990), directed by Aleksey German Jr. and starring Milan Maric and Danila Kozlovsky.
The film premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival in February, where it won the Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution. It charts six days in the life of the brilliant and ironic writer Dovlatov in 1971 in Leningrad, on the eve of the migration of his friend, the future Nobel Laureate Joseph Brodsky.
Sergei’s manuscripts were routinely rejected by the official media as his point of view was deemed undesirable. Dovlatov, who saw far beyond the rigid limits of the 1970s in Soviet Russia, fought to preserve his own talent and decency while watching his artist friends getting crushed by the iron-willed state apparatus.
Director German Jr. and production designer Elena Okopnaya will have a Q&A session with viewers at the FIFF prior to the screening of their movie. The duo will also hold workshops on the sidelines of the annual event.
German Jr., 41, has so far won several awards including the award for Achievement in Directing at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards in 2015 for ‘Under Electric Clouds’ and the Silver Lion for Best Director at the 65th Venice International Film Festival for ‘Paper Soldier’ (2008).
Post-Apocalyptic Story
The 2017 feature film ‘Grain’ from Turkey directed by the international award-winning director Semih Kaplanoglu is a dystopian drama set in a world where those that survive are divided between the remnants of cities and agricultural zones. Both of the groups are ruled by corporations and populated by elites.
Professor Erol Erin, a seed geneticist, lives in a city protected from multi-ethnic immigrants by magnetic walls. For unknown reasons, the city’s agricultural plantations have been hit by a genetic crisis. In a meeting at the headquarters of Novus Vita, the corporation which employs him, Erol hears about Cemil Akman, a fellow geneticist who wrote a thesis about the recurrent crises affecting genetically modified seeds. Erol sets out on a journey to find him. A journey that will change everything Erol knew.
Screenwriter, producer and director Kaplanoglu, who won the Golden Bear in Berlin for his 2010 film ‘Honey’, said he worked for around five years to complete ‘Grain’, which last year won the top award at the 30th Tokyo International Film Festival.
Grain was filmed in black and white and shot in different cities across Turkey as well as the US and Germany.
Kaplanoglu, 54, is widely regarded as one of the most accomplished and influential directors in Turkish cinema, has received 28 international awards worldwide. His films are characterized by metaphysical themes and distinctively authored use of cinematography. The director will attend a session to talk about his work with the audience and will hold filmmaking workshops on the sideline of the annual festival.
Life of Inuits
‘Aga’ (2018), a new feature film by Milko Lazarov, is a joint production of Bulgaria, Germany and France. It was an entry in the Berlin Film Festival in February.
Both Lazarov and producer of the film Veselka Kiriakova will attend the screening to talk about their joint production.
The plot of the coproduction takes viewers far north and tells a story about the clash of civilizations through the prism of love and human relations. In a yurt among the snowy fields of the north, the two main characters (Inuits) – Nanuk and Sedna – dream of reuniting their family. They live in the spirit of the traditions of their ancestors.
Left to their own devices in the wilderness, they remind the viewers of the last people on Earth. When Sedna’s health gets worse and she dies, Nanuk decides to fulfill her last wish – to find their long-gone daughter Aga, who has chosen the life in the city and has forgotten their traditions.
Lazarov’s first film ‘Alienation’ (2013) was premiered in the official section of the 70th Venice Film Festival and won two awards.
Kyrgyz Entry
Kyrgyzstan is among the last countries that contributed to the 36th FIFF with two films. One of them, the ‘Night Accident’ (2017) will be screened in the international competition section.
Directed by Temirbek Birnazarov, the bittersweet drama is the winner of the Grand Prix at Black Nights Film Festival in Tallinn, Estonia.
World-weary Tentike is heading into old age alone, defeated and disappointed by his hardscrabble life. His demeaning manual job entails digging sewer pits for a wealthy property tycoon who, by a cruel twist of fate, turns out to be the man who stole his wife years before.
After a humiliating confrontation with his former rival, Tentike resolves to take violent revenge. But his plans go awry when he accidentally collides with a mysterious young woman while riding his motorcycle on the lonely stretch of a moonlit highway.
A 7-member jury, comprising five foreign nationals and two Iranians, will evaluate the films in the competition section of the 36th FIFF and award one Golden Simorgh statuette to the best film and five Silver Simorgh awards for best directing, script, actor, actress and the best achievement in one of the technical fields of editing, score, cinematography, set and costume design.
Celebrated filmmaker Reza Mirkarimi will serve as secretary of the event for the third consecutive year. The festival has been held independently from the national Fajr Film Festival for the past four years.
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