The lineup includes Shahram Mokri’s acclaimed drama “Careless Crime”, the winner of the Silver Hugo of the jury at the Chicago International Film Festival in 2020.

In the movie, students are shooting a film, the audience is waiting for screening as four men want to make a statement and set fire to a cinema.

The festival will also screen Farnaz Amini’s feature debut “Highway”.

The film follows a young woman, obviously slightly injured, who sits silently on the back seat in the taxi. The nervous driver is supposed to take her to Tehran as quickly as possible. Sometimes he awkwardly tries to make conversation, sometimes he indulges in accusations.

“Drowning in Holy Water” by Navid Mahmudi is also competing in the event.

The film is about Rona and Hamed, a young Afghan couple, arrive illegally by bus in Tehran. From there they want to flee to Europe in the hope of a better life. Hamed finds accommodation in the flat of an Afghan friend who wants to continue west via Turkey. But to be recognized as refugees, they need a reason.

The debut films “Untimely” by Pouya Eshtehardi and “Dizziness” by Rasul Kahani are also among the films.

Six documentary films, including “Coup 53” by Taqi Amirani, will also be competing in the festival.

“Coup 53” received the audience award at the 14th edition of Cinéma Vérité, Iran’s major international festival for documentary films, last December.

While making a documentary about the Anglo-American coup in Iran in 1953, Amirani and editor Walter Murch find an extraordinary and never-before-seen archive. Documents and 16mm footage recount this story in unprecedented detail, with explosive revelations about secrets hidden for 66 years. From a historical documentary about four days in August 1953, the film becomes a living investigation that exposes the roots of Iran’s volatile relationships with the United Kingdom and the USA.

The lineup also features the documentary “Ill Fate” by Sahar Khoshnam, “Radiograph of a Family” by Firuzeh Khosravani, “Captain Daryai” by Maziar Moshtaq-Gohari, “Pruning Season” by Loqman Khaledi, and “Iranian Pet Club” by Hadi Afarideh.

Source: Tehran Times