Spanish Galacticat fest awards ‘Where the Winds Die’

Iranian short animation ‘Where the Winds Die’ with a theme upon Iraq’s 1987 chemical attack on the Iranian town of Sardasht in West Azarbaijan has been awarded at the 9th Fantastic Film Festival – Galacticat in Spain.

Directed by Pejman Alipour, the 13-minute film received the Best Short Animation Award at the 2022 edition of the Spanish fest.  

Produced by the Documentary and Experimental Film Center (DEFC), ‘Where the Winds Die’ is a symbolic and formalistic animation.   

“Sardasht, a Kurdish city in Iran is the first city in the world to be victim of chemical weapons with mustard gas bombs. This creative film is about before/ after the bombing, the post-war effects and the impact on daily lives – loves and families. It is a creative concept showing everything through the metaphor of reflections and utilizing a unique animation style,” writes the event’s official platform.

“The film has a poetic look at the daily life in Sardasht three months before the chemical attack, the moment when the attack happened and years after the tragedy,” Alipour describes his movie.

The former dictator of Iraq bombarded Sardasht with chemical weapons on June 28, 1987, killing more than 1,000 and injuring more than 8,000 civilians, many of whom were permanently disabled.

The flick is also the recipient of the best human rights award at the Music Film Festival in France and the best animated film award at the 6th online monthly Filmmaker's Space Film Festival.   

The film has already been on screen at a number of global events, including the 32nd MEDIAWAVE International Film and Music Gathering in Hungary, the 32nd World Festival of Animated Film (Animafest Zagreb) in Croatia and the 17th Athens ANIMFEST in Greece.

The Fantastic Film Festival – Galacticat in an annual film event and “the first and only show of fantastic cinema in the lands of Lleida, Catalonia, for all movie lovers in general and those who love science fiction in particular.”

The 9th edition of the event was held in Tàrrega on August 15-21, 2022.  

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