‘Return’ to race in Afghanistan

‘Return’, a short film from Iran, has been selected to compete at the Herat International Women’s Film Festival (HIWFF) in Afghanistan.

The flick, at the helm of Mostafa Gholami, will attend the 6th edition of HIWFF.

‘Return’ is a 60-second short film about self-sacrifice and organ donation in the social genre. This film shows one minute of the vital and critical life stage of a patient in need of transplantation. The clock hands show 23:59, indicating that the patient's life will end 60 seconds later; and the clock body becomes white and the image loses its brightness simultaneously while the second is rotating, which indicates despair, end of life, and a color change in the patient's life.

The second hand stops at the second "45", and the image also gets blurry. Then, it suddenly gets clear and the clock body returns to its normal color and the image becomes as bright as it originally was. The second continues its path.

The patient's life was saved in the final moments and the organ donation was performed successfully.

In April 2019, ‘Return’ made its global debut in the competition program of the 60 Second Intl. Film Festival - 60SIFF in Pakistan. To make its second international appearance, the flick attended the 7th Lift-Off Global Network Sessions in the UK in 2019.

Following its global premiers, ‘Return’ made its third hit in the 3rd edition of the Wirksworth 3 Minute Film Festival in the UK. In December 2019, Gholami made finalist in the 1st Big SYN International Short Film Festival in the UK where it won the special mention award of the event.

The accolades go on with making the semi-finalist at the 3rd Annual Video Art + Film Festival held in 2019 in California. 

Gholami’s short title will be also attending the 8th Mister Vorky One-Minute and Short Film Festival to be held in Serbia on August 19-23.  

Known as the most prestigious Women’s Film Festival in the region, HIWFF is an annual event held in Afghanistan with the aim to highlight the power of women in different life situations.

The screening event is set for August 26–30, 2020.

MM/FM