“Carless Crime”, “Sunless Shadows”, “Tirishko” collect awards at Dhaka festival
TEHRAN – (Iranart)- Iranian movies “Carless Crime”, “Sunless Shadows” and “Tirishko” have won awards at the 19th Dhaka International Film Festival in Bangladesh.
“Careless Crime”, co-written by Nasim Ahmadpur and director Shahram Mokri, won the award for best screenplay during the closing day of the festival on Sunday.
The story of the film goes back to forty years ago, during the uprising to overthrow the Shah’s regime in Iran, when protestors set fire to movie theaters as a way of showing opposition to Western culture. Many cinemas were burned down. In one tragic case, a theater was set on fire with four hundred people inside, most of whom were burned alive. Forty years have passed and, in contemporary Iran, four individuals also decide to burn down a cinema. Their intended target is a theater showing a film about an unearthed, unexploded missile.
The film has been screened at several major international festivals and won several awards, including the best original screenplay award at the Venice festival and the Silver Hugo of the jury at the Chicago International Film Festival.
“Sunless Shadows” directed by Mehrdad Oskui was selected as best documentary in the Spiritual Film Section of the Dhaka festival, which was organized online from January 16.
In an Iranian juvenile detention center, a group of adolescent girls are serving time for having murdered their father, husband or another male family member. Oskui managed to build up a remarkable relationship with these inmates, whose frank conversations and playful interactions he observes, and who gradually open up about the consequences of, and sometimes the reasons for, their terrible acts.
“Tirishko” by Shakiba Khaleqi won the award for best short in the Short Fiction Category.
The film tells the story of a young woman who lives alone in Tehran with her cat, Tirishko. Having learned that her mother in Isfahan is ill, she decides to go and look after her. But as she cannot find anyone to take care of Tirishko, she sets off with the cat in tow. Her subsequent journey is not without incident.
The award for best feature went to “Senior Citizen” by Marinos Kartikkis from Cyprus.
“The Road to Eden” co-directed Bakyt Mukul and Dastan Zhapar Uulu from Kyrgyzstan won the award for best film in the Asian competition, while Ksenia Lagutina was named best director for “Farida”, a co-production between Azerbaijan and Russia.
source: Tehran Times