TEHRAN – “Tales” directed by Iranian filmmaker/writer Rakhshan Bani-Etemad won the award for best screenplay at the 71st International Venice Film Festival on Saturday.
The film contains seven short episodes, in which Bani-Etemad reveals the fate of some of the female characters in her previous films like “The Blue-Veiled”, “Under the Skin of the City” and “Mainline”, and also people who represent different layers of the society.
“The honor of the prize belongs to my old friend Farid Mostafavi, whose pen was with me from my first to the latest film,” Bani-Etemad told the Persian service of ISNA in a phone interview on Sunday.
Top Iranian screenwriter Mostafavi has collaborated with many Iranian filmmaker. He is the co-writer of most of Bani-Etemad’s films.
The film was screened on the third day of the festival on August 28, during which Bani-Etemad attended a press conference for her film, criticizing the West’s sanctions against Iran and said that the embargo “actually penalizes the people in the country.”
The Golden Lion award for best film was presented to Swedish director Roy Andersson for his movie “A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence” during the award ceremony.
Russian filmmaker Andrej Koncalovskij won the Silver Lion for best director for “The Postman’s White Nights).
Best actor and best actress awards went to Adam Driver and Alba Rohrwacher for their roles in “Hungry Hearts” by Italian director Saverio Costanzo.
The jury prize for best film was awarded to “The Look of Silence", American director Joshua Oppenheimer's documentary about confronting the perpetrators of massacres in Indonesia in the 1960s following a failed coup.
Turkish director Kaan Mujdeci received the special jury prize for “Sivas”.
MMS/YAW
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