French festival awards Iran’s ‘Yeva’

The French festival of new generation of Iranian cinema (Nouvelles Images d'Iran) has awarded ‘Yeva’.

‘Yeva’ received the festival’s first award while the second and third awards went to ‘Villa Residents’ by Monir Qeidi and ‘A House on 41st Street’ by Hamid-Reza Qrobani, respectively.

Directed by Anahid Abad, ‘Yeva’ is the story of a young woman who is forced to flee Yerevan with her daughter Nareh. She would have to stand trial there because she allegedly killed her husband.

Uncle Ruben and the remote village in Nagorno-Karabakh are her last chances to go into hiding. But the villagers recognize her from the days of war when she had cared for the wounded as a doctor at the front.

‘Yeva’ is a joint production between the National Cinema Center of Armenia and the Iranian Farabi Cinema Foundation in Tehran.

The cast members of the flick, which represented Armenia at the 90th edition of Academy Awards, include Narine Grigoryan, Shant Hovhannisyan, Marjan Avetisyan.

Notable screenings, awards and mentions of ‘Yeva’ include the Montreal World Film Festival in Canada, the Mill Valley Film Festival in the US, the Asian World Film Festival in the US, Audience Award at the Pomegranate Film Festival in Canada, the Tbilisi Int'l Film Festival in Georgia, the Palm Springs Film Festival in the US, the Rafael Film Center in the US, and the Los Angeles Armenian Film Society in the US.

The list goes on with the Bengaluru International Film Festival in India, the International Filmmor Women’s Film Festival on Wheels in Turkey, the Sofia International Film Festival in Bulgaria, the Cleveland International Film Festival in the US, the Best Film and the Best Actor Awards at the Yerevan International Film Festival in Armenia, the Burgas International Film Festival in Bulgaria, the Armenian Film Festival in Australia, the Rolan Bykov Film Festival for Children and Youth in Armenia, the Best Actress Award at the Kinoshock Film Festival in Russia, and the Cottbus Film Festival in Germany.

The film also won the award for best feature film at the 2018 Arpa International Film Festival in the US, the Grand Prix at the 6th Socially Relevant Film Festival in US, the Best Film award at the 14th Rolan - International Film Festival for Children and Youth in Armenia, the best foreign film award at the 11th Annual DTLA Film Festival in the US, and Iran actor Homayoun Ershadi and director Abad were praised with awards during side event of the 76th annual Venice International Film Festival in Italy.

The French city of Vitré hosted the Nouvelles Images d'Iran in December 2019.

The first edition of the Nouvelles Images d'Iran, was held by the Iran-France Center in collaboration with the municipality of Vitré and sponsored by Iran’s Farabi Cinema Foundation and World Culture Association, on December 11-15, 2019.

This event highlights the relationship that has long continued to exist between the French and Persian cultures faithful to the memory of world traveler Pierre-Olivier Malherbe who had forged close ties with Persia in the seventeenth century.

The festival aims at introducing the new generation of Iranian cinema and the contemporary Iran.

MG/MG