Iranian director wins Russian award

Iranian director Vahid Jalilvand has won an award at the Andrei Tarkovsky International Film Festival "The Mirror" in Russia.

The Iranian filmmaker received the Best Director award for his drama ‘No Date, No Signature’.

Jalilvand’s movie produced by his brother Ali, stars Hediyeh Tehrani, Amir Aqaei, Saeed Dakh, Alireza Ostadi and Navid Mohammadzadeh.

The movie narrates the story of Kaveh Nariman, a doctor who works at the Iranian Legal Medicine Organization. He has to examine the corpse of someone that he used to know in the past.

‘No Date, No Signature’ was premiered at the 35th edition of the Fajr Film Festival and received three Crystal Simorgh awards for best director, best actor in a supporting role and best sound mixer.

The movie has so far taken part at a number of international events, including the 2018 Palm Springs Filmfest in the US and the 37th Istanbul International Film Festival in Turkey.

The flick scooped Best Director and Best Actor awards at the Venice Horizons section of the 74th Venice Film Festival in Italy and Audience Choice award from the 18th Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival in Spain.

It also won the Special Jury Award ‘Silver Alexander’ as well as the FIPRESCI Jury Award at the 58th edition of the Thessaloniki International Film Festival in Greece this November.

Born in 1975, Jalilvand studied Theatre Directing at the University of Tehran and became a TV presenter, voice actor as well as a theater and television actor.

He began his artistic journey at the age of 15 by playing a role in theatre.

Besides acting in theatre, he simultaneously worked in the radio. Jalilvand's TV series debut was 'The Addiction Trap' in 1994.

He made his movie debut with 'Extreme Cold' in 2009 and directed several TV shows, including 'Rain from Another Perspective’, 'Say Hi, Setareh' and '40 Minutes Without Judgment'. He also put the play 'Love is Not Something That Happens' on stage with a theme on Imam Hussein (AS).

He won the Best Director award for the movie 'Wednesday, 9 May' (2014) in the New Vision section of 33rd Fajr International Film Festival.

The Mirror festival is dedicated to the modern indie movies. There is a real feast for fans of intellectual cinema. The festival consists of screenings, meetings and exhibitions.

The latest edition of the Russian festival was held on June 11-18, 2018, and some 150 movies were screened.

MG/AG