Iranian ‘The Warden’ to compete in Russia

Iranian movie ‘The Warden’ has been selected to compete at the XIII International Film Festival “East & West. Classics and Avant Garde” in Russia.

Directed by Nima Javidi, the film will compete with 18 other works from the US, Spain, Iceland, Denmark, Italy, Germany, France, the Czech Republic and Bulgaria.

The film has participated at several film festivals, including the 17th Chennai International Film Festival in India, the 24th International Film Festival of Kerala in India, the 9th International Crime and Punishment Film Festival in Turkey, 2019 Thessaloniki International Film Festival in Greece, and the 43rd Sao Paulo International Film Festival in Brazil.

The film also grabbed a number of awards, including special student jury award at the 2019 International Crime and Punishment Film Festival in Turkey, Best Film award at the 21st Iran Cinema Celebration, Best Director award at the 13th Iran Critics and Screenwriters gala and Best Cinema Actor Award at the 2020 Hafez Awards in Iran.

Navid Mohammadzadeh delivers speech at the 2020 Hafez Awards ceremony.

The 90-minute film, starring Navid Mohammadzadeh and Parinaz Izadyar, got its premiere at the 37th Fajr Film Festival in Iran where it won the Special Jury Award.

‘The Warden’ narrates the story of a warden who has big hopes of promotion.

He has recently been assigned a mission to evacuate the prison and move the inmates into another facility.

Should he be able to accomplish his task to the fullest, he will be rewarded.

A prisoner, however, has gone missing which might bring the warden shame and bring down his dreams of promotion.

“Cinema can afford everything - it is a world of illusions, miracles and exciting stories. Our festival is a story about how Europe and Asia, East and West meet and begin to tell each other exciting stories,” according to "East & West. Classics and Avant Gard" official website.

The 13th edition of the event is scheduled for August 21-26, 2020.

Read more:

Navid Mohammadzadeh speaks at 2020 Hafez Awards

ifilm exclusive report on Iranian feature ‘The Warden’

PR/MG