Directed by Mohsen Qarai, “Blockage” is about Qasem, a young man who is working at Tehran Municipality and his job is to prevent vendors from selling their merchandise on the sidewalks. He’s about to be fired because of his secret deals with some of the vendors so he’s looking for another job as a truck driver. He’s counting on his wife, Akram’s patrimony to buy a truck, however, Akram believes they should buy a small house and leave Qasem’s father’s home. Nevertheless, Qasem’s fight with a vendor some days earlier creates an opportunity to overcome these problems.
“Are You Volleyball?” by director Mohammad Bakhshi tells the story of a group of Arabic-speaking asylum seekers who arrive at the border of an English-speaking country and can go no further. There are scuffles with the border guards every day until volleyball becomes the catalyst that improves relations.
The short won the award for best film at the 9th BCN Sports Film Festival in Barcelona, Spain in May.
The Iranian Film Festival is organized every year by Yari, an Uppsala-based charity organization that helps street children in Iran to go to school and also raises funds for the construction of schools and libraries for children.
The Sweden-based Iranian cineastes Alireza Mojallal, Reza Baqer, Saeid Sharifian and Mina Azarian and Swedish filmmaker Mikael Hylin were the members of the jury this year.
Source:Tehran Times