‘Untimely’ to land in US

The Columbus International Film and Animation Festival in the US has included Iranian feature ‘Untimely’ in its competition playlist.

Directed by Pouya Eshtehardi, the flick will attend the competition section of the 68th edition of the American screening event.

The story revolves around Hamin, a young guy doing his military service in a watchtower in the borderline of Iran and Pakistan.

Impatient for a day off to attend his sister’s wedding ceremony, he gets into a fight with his commander. Up in the watchtower, Hamin reviews the past years and the things happened to him and his sister since their childhood.

The cast list of ‘Untimely’ includes Iman Afshar, Shayan Afshar, Ayyoub Afshar, Mahsa Narouee, Ava Azarpira, and Mollabakhsh Raeesi.

Director Eshtehardi is a musician, novelist and a filmmaker. Since 2010, he has made many short films and documentaries. Untimely is his first feature film that he also wrote.

‘Untimely’ had previously won the best feature film and best editing awards of the 2019 Asian Cinematography Awards as well as best film, best director and best cinematography awards at the 5th Tokyo independent films celebration in Japan.   

The feature was also praised by the audience and critics in the ‘Festival of Films from Iran’ in both Boston and Houston Museums of Fine Arts. It has also been nominated in the New Mexico Santa Fe Film Festival.

Iranian short flick ‘Limit’ by Javad Daraei is also among the competition lineup of the Columbus filmfest.

As the oldest film festival in the United States, the Columbus International Film & Animation Festival promotes and celebrates independent filmmakers from around the globe.

With the approval of the US Department of Health and Human Services, the festival will be held on April 15-19, 2020 in the state of Ohio.

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