“Veteran photographer of theater Akhtar Tajik, theater critic Homayun Aliabadi, veteran actor Bahram Ebrahimi as well as a prominent actor of North Khorasan Province Jamshid Davarpanah are the four veterans who will be honored,” the festival director Hossein Mosafer Astaneh, said in a press conference at the Rudaki Hall on Wednesday.
“Among all the arts, the art of theater is the only one that has played major role in helping people feel at peace,” he said.
“Due to the current situation of coronavirus restrictions and the pandemic in the world, the big loss was for the theatrical figures, and they could not produce or perform their theatrical productions,” he added.
“However, they have tried to produce some new plays to insert happiness and hope for the public. I believe they have tried as hard as the health staff and those who fought hard during the eight years of the Iran-Iraq war,” he noted.
He also noted that due to the limited number of visitors and the halls, some of the plays could not find their ways into the festival this year.
28 plays have been selected for the national competition section of the 39th edition of the festival.
The selection includes “Smoking Room” by director Saeid Zarei, “Pinocchio” by Mohammadreza Mahmudi, “Bodies” by Alireza Marufi, “Rashomon” by Ehsan Abdolmaleki, “Bloody Tuesdays” by Mohammad-Mehdi Khatami and “Naskh” by Amirhossein Ghaffari.
Also included are several provincial award-winning plays.
The collection includes “Pandemic” by director Reza Purtorabzadeh, “Bob Bara” by Nima Imanzadeh, “Awakening in Time of Blood” by Ehsan Janami, “Growing” by Shoaib Maktabdari, “Reboot” by Amirhossein Ajir Arshad, “Uninvited” by Alireza Mahmudi and “I Am Staring at the Sea so No One Takes It Away” by Hassan Sobhani.
The plays in the guest section are “Ajax” by Fateh Baadparva, “Among a Great Number of Fish” by Amir Delfani and “A Cassette” by Mohammad Akbari.
In addition, 12 plays have been picked this year for the Soldier of the Revolution, a section dedicated to street theater.
The plays have been selected by a team of stage artists: Tohid Masumi, Saeid Kheirollahi and Mohammad Larti.
“Those Years” by director Bahareh Saeidinia, “His is Champion Akbar” by Mostafa Dehasht and Bahar Bordbar, “Cocoon of the Revolution” by Puya Emami, “Life with the Taste of Gunpowder” by Mojtaba Khalili and “In the Name of” by Akbar Qahremani are among the plays.
Also included are “The Ring” by Nesa Soleimani, “General” by Saeid Badini, “Soldier of the Commander” by Amin Purmand, “Commander of the Shrine” by Amir Amini, “Messenger” by Hessameddin Iranmanesh, “No One Is a Man like You” by Behnam Kaveh and “When Hell Freezes Over” by Mehrdad Kavus Hosseini.
The festival will be running from January 30 to February 9 this year.
According to Mosafer Astaneh, the international competition of the 2021 edition of the event will not be held due to a spike in coronavirus cases around the globe.
Source: Tehran Times