Fajr Intl. Film Festival opens in Tehran

 

At the beginning of the ceremony, host Mohammad Soluki read the messages sent to the festival by Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Mohammad Hosseini and Iran Cinema Organization Director Javada Shamaqdari. 

 

Actors Jamshid Mashayekhi and Jahangir Almasi, and filmmakers Parviz Sheikh-Tadi and Nader Talebzadeh, and make-up designer Mehri Shirazi were honored with lifetime achievement awards during the ceremony.

 

A wide variety of Iranian and foreign films will compete at the festival, which runs until February 10.

 

Sixteen films from China, South Korea, Ukraine, Japan, Australia, Britain, the U.S. and several other countries are competing in the international section of the festival.

 

Among the films are “Burned by the Sun” directed by Nikita Mikhalkov from Russia, “Calm at Sea”, a joint production of Germany and France directed by Volker Schlöndorff and “The First Grader” by Justin Chadwick from England.

 

The films are selected from 383 movies submitted by filmmakers from 71 countries.

 

The festival also dedicates a section to review Polish cinema in which seven feature films along with 21 short movies are competing during the event.

 

Entitled “From Gdansk to Tatry”, the section is for raising the knowledge of Iranian moviegoers about Polish cinema, the organizers said in a press release.

 

“Man of Iron” and “Katyn” directed by Andrzej Wajda, “My Nikifor” by Krzysztof Krauze, “Life” by Krzysztof Zanussi, “Time to Die” and “Tomorrow Will Be Better” by Dorota Kedzierzawska are among the films that will go on screen during the event.

 

This edition of the festival also will screen Roman Polanski’s comedy drama “Carnage” and Michael Haneke’s romance drama “Amour”.

 

Films from 12 countries including Taiwan, Belgium, Iraq and England will be shown in the non-competitive section of the festival, a special section.

 

Among the movies are “30 Years of Darkness” directed by Manuel H. Martin and “Eva” by Kike Maillo both from Spain, “First Time for Everything” by Leonid Fomin from Russia, “Four Horsemen” by Ross Ashcroft from England, and “ In My Mother’s Arms” by Atia and Mohammed Al-Daraji from Iraq.

 

Iran’s first 3D film “Mr. Alef” directed by Ali Atashani is scheduled to premiere at the festival.

 

The third edition of the International Conference of Hollywoodism is also being held on the sidelines of the festival.

 

Many Iranian and foreign cineastes and film experts have been invited to the conference, which will be held from February 2 to 7.

 

One of the main goals of this conference is to probe the philosophy of the anti-Iranian and anti-Islamic movies that are produced by Hollywood, they said in a press release.

 

The cinema of the Non-Aligned Movement member countries is scheduled to be reviewed during the 31st Fajr International Film Festival.

 

A collection of movies by filmmakers from NAM member states will be screened in a special section.

 

Sixty-one films from 26 countries including Algeria, Azerbaijan, Chile, Indonesia, Iraq, Lebanon, Morocco, Nepal, Vietnam, Malaysia and Kenya have been submitted to the festival.

 

The festival also plans to hold a meeting to discuss the establishment of a NAM filmmakers’ union.

 

SB/YAW

END