Finnish fest to host Iran’s ‘Yalda’

The Helsinki International Film Festival - Love & Anarchy (HIFF) in Finland has slated to screen Masoud Bakhshi’s acclaimed feature ‘Yalda, a Night for Forgiveness’.

Produced by ifilm star, Ali Mosaffa, the film will go on screen at the Fearless section of the Finnish event’s 33rd edition.

The feature, which is a joint production of Iran, Switzerland, Germany, Lebanon and Luxembourg, follows the story of a young Iranian woman sentenced to death and seeking to obtain forgiveness from her accusers via a popular reality TV show.

She has killed her husband and now it is up to his only daughter to forgive her or not.

Behnaz Jafari, Faqiheh Soltani, Fereshteh Sadr-Orafaee, Bahram Afshar, Fereshteh Hosseini and Babak Karimi are among the cast members of the flick.

The film has so far gained international recognition by taking part at a number of events and winning a number of awards, including Grand Jury Award at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival in the US and Special Mention for best screenplay at the Sofia International Film Festival in Bulgaria.

‘Yalda, a Night for Forgiveness’, which has already premiered and come to theaters in Germany since August 27, has succeeded to gain high revenues; therefore, the set screening dates in the country have been extended.

The film has also been showcased at Le Louxor Cinema in Paris, France since September 10. The screening will go on till October 7.

The HIFF is a non-competitive film festival held since 1988 in Helsinki, Finland, every year in September.

The festival promotes the artistry of filmmaking, the inventive, visually stunning and controversial new films, revealing the promising talents of tomorrow.

This year’s edition of fest is scheduled for September 17 to 27, 2020.

AA/MG