Iran ‘Azar’ to vie in Bangladesh

Iranian feature ‘Azar’ has been selected to compete at the 17th edition of the Dhaka International Film Festival (DIFF) in Bangladesh.

Directed by Mohammad Hamzei, ‘Azar’ tells the story of a woman whose husband is in jail as she tries to run her café restaurant. The main character also strives to get her husband out of prison, but things are not going quite as expected.

“I had aspirations for myself. I wanted to become a champion. I wanted to resist what the society imposed on me,” a short synopsis of the movie reads.

The film is Iranian actress Niki Karimi’s second production after ‘Night Shift’ besides directing some movies.

Karimi, Hamid-Reza Azarang, Farid Sajjadi-Hosseini, Hasti Mahdavi, Leila Zare, Maedeh Tahmasbi, Pejman Jamshidi and Houman Seyyedi are among the movie's cast.

‘Azar’ has so far taken part at a number of national and international film events, including the Tiburon International Film Festival and the Annual Festival of Films from Iran both in the US as well as the Vancouver International Film Festival in Canada and the International Urban Film Festival in Iran.

It has also gone on screen in a number of European countries, including the UK, Germany, Sweden, France and Austria.

The 17th DIFF, with the theme “Better Film, Better Audience, Better Society”, will feature some 170 films by filmmakers from about 60 countries around the world.

Various competition sections will be held at this DIFF, highlighting a wide range of interests from Asian to international cinema, children’s films, women filmmakers, short and independent films, and spiritual films.

The 17th DIFF is slated for January 10-18, 2019, in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

MG/AG