US filmfest honors ‘Untimely’

Iranian feature ‘Untimely’ has been lauded at the KC FilmFest International in the US.

Formally known as Kansas City FilmFest, the 24the edition of the event bestowed the Best World Cinema Feature Award upon Pouya Eshtehardi’s ‘Untimely’.

The flick is currently on screen at the 68th Columbus International Film and Animation Festival in the US.

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.   

Kansas City FilmFest International is the longest running and largest film festival in the Kansas City Metro Area.

The 2020 Kansas event has been hosted online on April 13-19 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

MM/FM