Chicago Southland festival awards Iran’s ‘I am Zal’

The 2nd edition of the Chicago Southland International Film Festival in the US has awarded Iranian short ‘I am Zal’.

Written and directed by Houman Naderi, ‘I am Zal’ won the award of the festival’s Life Happens section, according to the Iranian Youth Cinema Society.

‘I am Zal’ tells the story of a boy with Albinism who is supposed to play the role of a legendary character in a school play, but his mother punishes him and wants to stop him from taking part in the show.

The boy’s teachers notice that he has been beaten, so they stand up against his mother.

The film has previously participated at different events, including the 2019 Kadoma International Film Festival in Japan, the 2019 CEFALU Film Festival in Italy, the 14th International Oriental Film Festival of Geneva in Switzerland, the 4th Spain Moving Images Festival, the 7th BoVi FIlm Festival in the US, and the 11th International Inter-University Short Film Festival in Bangladesh.

It has also been selected to attend the 14th Marbella International Film Festival in Spain in October.

‘I am Zal’ was named the Best Film at the 14th Indonesian Film Festival in Australia.

The latest edition of the Chicago Southland International Film Festival was held on September 6-8, 2019.

SQ/MG