Iran doc grabs award at Croatia festival

Iranian documentary ‘Starless Dreams’ has won an award at the ZagrebDox 2017 documentary film festival in Croatia.

Directed by Mehrdad Oskui, the documentary competed with 120 other documentaries from around the world.

The 76-minute ‘Starless Dreams’ shows young women in an Iranian juvenile detention center reflecting on the crimes they have committed and the circumstances that have shaped their lives.

Though bored with their incarcerated life, they are scared about what might happen to them once outside. As the New Year approaches, they all hope to celebrate it with their families.

The documentary has grabbed a number of prestigious awards and titles from various film events.

Oskouei’s production has also received the Grierson Award for the best documentary at the 60th BFI London Film Festival and the Children’s Rights Award at the 31st Osnabrück Independent Film Festival in October.

Launched in 2005, the ZagrebDox is an international documentary film festival taking place in Zagreb every year, in late February/early March.

It is a specialized festival that presents the best creative documentary films with an imaginary form and choice of topics that make it unique in Croatia and Europe.

The festival was held on February 26-March 5, 2017 in Croatia.

FM/HY