He received the award from the jury, which included his fellow filmmaker, Puran Derakhshandeh.

The film is about two young children, whose mother has just died, and their father, Jalal, after long years of absence, returns to sort things out, but he does not want to take the children with him.

A Tale of Three Sisters by Emin Alper from Turkey won the award for best film and the film’s star Cemre Ebüzziya was named best actress.

Screwdriver by Bassam Jarbawi from Palestine received the special jury award, and Victor Zhusti won the best actor award for his role in Albanian director Bujar Alimani’s The Delegation.

The Korean Palme d’Or-winning film Parasite co-written by Joon-ho Bong and Jin-Won Han won the award for best screenplay.

The international jury was also composed of Berlin International Short Film Festival director Heinz Hermanns, film director Adrian Belic from the U.S., Tampere International Film Festival executive director Juhani Alanen from Finland and media manager Zulfiye Akkulak from Germany.

Terra by Julia Kushnarenko from Russia was picked as best documentary, while Iranian director Yasser Talebi’s acclaimed documentary Beloved received an honorable mention.

Mehrdad Oskui, the Iranian director of the acclaimed documentary Starless Dreams, was a member of the jury in the documentary competition.

Iranian shorts Umbra by Saeid Jafarian and Dreams in the Depths by Reza Mohammadi were also screened at the festival, which was held from October 1 to 7.

Source: Tehran Times