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Chennai festival to screen 11 Iranian films

Chennai festival to screen 11 Iranian films

TEHRAN –(Iranart)- A lineup of 11 Iranian films will be screened at the 18th edition of the Chennai International Film Festival running in the Indian city from February 18 to 25.

The selection includes “Careless Crime” by Shahram Mokri, “The Slaughterhouse” by Abbas Amini and “The Wasteland” by Ahmad Bahrami.

“Careless Crime” goes back forty years to 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.

Co-written by Nasim Ahmadpur and Mokri, the film also won the award for best screenplay at the 19th Dhaka International Film Festival in Bangladesh.

“The Slaughterhouse” tells the story of Amir, who has recently been released from jail and finds himself in a difficult situation when his father, who works at a slaughterhouse, calls on him to help him cover up a crime that has happened there.

“The Slaughterhouse” won the Kim Jiseok Award at the 25th Busan International Film Festival in October.

“The Wasteland” is about an old brick manufacturing factory that is going to be shut down, and all that matters to the factory supervisor is to keep his lover unharmed.  

The film won the Orizzonti award for best film at the 77th Venice Film Festival in September, while it also received the Fai Persona Lavoro Ambiente Foundation Award of the festival.

91 films from 53 countries will go on screen this year, and “The Girl with A Bracelet” by Stephane Demoustier from France will open the festival. 

The organizers have arranged several workshops to be conducted by eminent personalities from the film industry and literature.

source: Tehran Times

Chennai International Film Festival
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