4 Iran Entries at Toronto Int’l Film Festival

Four films from Iran including three features and one short work will be screened at the Toronto International Film Festival, September 6-16.

The feature films represent works of award winning directors Asghar Farhadi and Jafar Panahi alongside new talents Arash Lahooti and Saeed Jafarian, the festival website reported.

Two time Academy Award winner Asghar Farhadi presents his latest movie at the Gala Presentations - a section where high-profile international feature films are screened.

His Spanish-language film “Everybody Knows”, played by Penelope Cruz, Javier Bardem and Ricardo Darín, is a psychological drama about a family wedding interrupted by a shocking crime and some long-buried secrets.

Farhadi, who has won two Oscars for “A Separation” and “The Salesman,” has kept his style of mystery filmmaking yet he has tried new themes and location for his new film.

According to the Canadian daily The Globe and Mail, Farhadi’s movie is one of the most anticipated films in the festival. Another feature film “Orange Days” written and directed by Arash Lahooti is an empowering drama about self-sacrifice and a riveting fight against the odds in Tehran. The movie will be screened at “Discovery” section which shows films by first or second time directors.

In the film, Hedieh Tehrani plays a stoic farm contractor proving she can compete, against unfair odds, with male competitors and lead her crew of female workers on northern Tehran’s largest orange harvest. While her husband, played by Ali Mosaffa, seems no longer willing to recognize her efforts.

The movie “3 Faces” by Jafar Panahi is set for screening in the “Masters” section, dedicated to feature films by the world’s most influential art-house filmmakers.

Panahi, the winner of the Best Screenplay Award at 71st Cannes festival, is one of three main characters in his own gently-paced meta-mockumentary, as he and film star Behnaz Jafari drive to northwest Iran on a quest to thwart the suicide of a young, aspiring actor desperate to escape her constrained, provincial life.

Short film “Umbra” by Saeed Jafarian will be shown in the “Short Cuts” section. It is a drama about a young woman who goes into the streets of Tehran at night, to search for her missing lover and encounters a disturbing reminder of the limits of her freedom. The cast includes Mahsa Alafar and Banipal Shoomoon.

Founded in 1976, TIFF is one of the most popular cinema events in the world.