“Dressage” by Puya Badkubeh and “Hendi & Hormoz” by Abbas Amini will go on screen in the Generation 14plus competition.
The festival calls “Dressage” a “radically staged story about control, blackmail and the power of money” that “holds an uncompromising mirror up to Iranian society.”
Motivated primarily by boredom rather than greed, Golsa and her friends rob a corner shop. But while evaluating the booty, they are dismayed to realize that they forgot to take the security camera footage. One of them must return to the crime scene and retrieve it. The vote falls on Golsa, who bravely completes the mission. Her friends’ behavior makes her think, and she hides the hard drive somewhere in secret. But her accomplices and their well-to-do families, worried about their social standing, put more and more pressure on Golsa.
“Hendi & Hormoz”, a co-production between Iran and the Czech Republic, portrays the existential struggle of two young people who must abandon their carefree youth in a harsh world.
It takes place on Iran’s Hormuz Island in the Persian Gulf, where hematite deposits in the soil turn the ocean waves blood-red. 16-year-old Hormoz is married to Hendi, three years his junior, after he promises that he can work as a miner. But the young man finds closed doors instead of a job. When Hendi becomes pregnant unexpectedly, Hormoz is forced to make an ill-advised pact with a smuggler.
A total of 65 full-length and short films have been invited to compete in the Generation Kplus and Generation 14plus competitions.
Earlier last week, the organizers of the Berlin festival announced that “Pig” by Iranian director Mani Haqiqi will screen in the official competition of the festival, which will be held from February 15 to 25.
Source: Tehran Times