Italian filmfest awards Iran’s ‘Serok’

Iranian short flick ‘Serok’ has won an award at the Spi Stories 2020 “Abbiamo bisogno di uguaglianza/ We need equality” in Italy.

According to Iranian outlets, the 5-minute flick received the grand prize of the Italian event.

Directed by Zhivar Farajzadeh, ‘Serok’ follows the life of a young boy, who is forced to stand in as the shepherd for his father's flock during the summer.

“No matter where we live or what we do, financial struggles usually impact the children most - education suffers; dreams take a back seat. We hope that, at least, Serok gets the opportunity to become a policeman and drive his car. Only time will tell,” a brief plot for the film reads.

The short film is the winner of the Special Jury Prize at the Sulaimaniyah Children’s Film Festival in Iraq and was nominated for Best Documentary Short Film at the Scout Film Festival in the US.

Some of the global events attended by ‘Serok’ include the Loudoun Arts Film Festival in the US, the CinéStudent International Film Festival in France, the Inshort Film Festival in the UK, the annual Philadelphia Environmental Film Festival in the US, the International Children’s Rights Film Festival in Turkey, and the Covellite International Film Festival in the US.

The film has also been screened at the Busan International Kids and Youth Film Festival in South Korea, the Cefalù Film Festival in Italy, the Realtime International Film Festival in Nigeria, the Golden Bull Film Festival in Turkey, the Florianópolis Children’s Film Festival in Brazil, the international film festival for children and teens MI PRIMER FESTIVAL in Peru, the Kinofilm Manchester International Short Film Festival in the UK, and the Canadian Labour International Film Festival.

The Spi Stories is an annual competition of short films. This year, the topic of the competition is about poverty, lowering of incomes, unemployment, growing obstacles to access to good instruction and health care.

The latest edition of the event was held on December 17, 2020.

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