Serbia picks ‘Rona, Azim’s Mother’

The 9th edition of the ÍRÁN:CI film festival in Serbia has picked ‘Rona, Azim’s Mother’ (Break Simultaneously Twenty Bones) as Best Feature Film.

Directed and written by Jamshid Mahmoudi, the flick narrates the story of an Afghan refugee named Azim who lives in Tehran along with his family and works at Tehran municipality at night.

Being the family’s head, he must choose between his own life and his mother’s whom he claims is the most important one in his life, as he found out that she is in dire need of kidney transplant.

The 90-minute film stars Mohsen Tanabandeh, Mojtaba Pirzadeh, Fatemeh Hosseini, Fereshteh Hosseini and Fatemeh Mirzaee.

The film won Kim Jiseok Award at the 23rd Busan International Film Festival in South Korea, two awards at the Diorama International Film Festival in India, the Grand Prix of the International Jury and the INALCO (Asian Studies University in Paris) award at the 25th Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema in France, best film award at the 3rd Sharm el-Sheikh Asian Film Festival in Egypt, and Best Afghan Feature Film at the 3rd Sama International Film Festival in Sweden.

‘Rona, Azim’s Mother’ has gone on screen at some global events, including the 29th Annual Festival of Films from Iran in the US and the 20th Asiatica Film Festival in Italy.

With 8 consecutive editions in its history, the ÍRÁN:CI has become a permanent part of the cultural calendar in Prague, Brno and Bratislava, and has turned into one of the well-awaited interactive showcases across the cities.

Focused on the best works of Iranian cinema, the festival’s program expands in form and content to widen the grasp of different arts for the audiences.

The 9th ÍRÁN:CI, the Festival of Iranian Films, was held on January 15-19 in Prague and on January 21-22 in Brno.

The event will continue on January 23-25 in Košice and on January 30-31 in Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia.

MG/MG