The 7th edition of Baghdad International Film Festival will screen three films by Iranian filmmakers.
Ahmad-Reza Darvish’s ‘al-Qurban’ (also known as ‘Hussein Who Said No’) and ‘Tragedy’ directed by Azita Mogouee, will take part in the Long Fiction Competition section while ‘The Fish and I’ by Babak Hibibifar will be screened in the Short Drama Competition section, Mehr News Agency reported.
Darvish’s two-hour movie is a historical religious epic production about the uprising of Imam Hussein (AS) against the Umayyad dynasty in 680 AD. It was premiered at the 32nd Fajr International Film Festival in Tehran in February 2014 and won five Crystal Simorghs.
It has been dubbed in Arabic and English. Hassan Pourshirazi, Babak Hamidian, Farhad Ghaemian, Pouria Poursorkh, Arash Aasefi, Bahador Zamani and actors from Syria, Lebanon, Kuwait, Iraq and the US are cast in the big-budget film.
‘Tragedy’, a drama, narrates the story of a man, living with a wife 20 years younger than him and the man’s two children in their twenties, who gets into deep trouble after injuring his hand and then causing an accident.
Mogouee’s debut feature film, produced in 2014, has Mehdi Hashemi, Bahram Radan, Roya Nonahali, Hossein Yari and Pantea Bahram in the cast.
The six-minute film ‘Fish and I’ shows the efforts of a blind man trying to save his goldfish. Habibifar is the writer, director, editor, actor and composer of the film, which has won prizes at international festivals including the 8th annual ‘Short Short Story Film Festival’ in the US State of Rhode Island, Uhvati Film Festival in Serbia and Soria International Filmfest in Spain.
The 7th edition of the festival, slated for October 1-5 in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, will screen 84 films in the official competition sections from 40 countries.
Iranian filmmaker Vahid Mousanian won the top prize of the 2014 festival for his movie ‘The Fourth Child.’
Established in 2005, the festival supports new cinema in Iraq - a cinema for multiculturalism with a focus on the values of freedom, democracy, human rights and justice.
It provides a platform with an intercultural forum bringing together young practitioners and professionals from different countries, cultures and ethnicities. The competition program is supplemented by workshops, exhibitions and discussions.
