‘Cold Breath’ tops US film festival

Iranian film ‘Cold Breath’ directed by Abbas Raziji has received an award at the 2nd edition of the Ridgefield Independent Film Festival (RIFF) in the US.

The Iranian flick won the award for Best Narrative Feature, the festival’s official website recently announced.

“Beautifully shot story of a nontraditional family in Iran and their struggles with class, gender and illness,” the website wrote.

The movie narrates the story of Maryam, who is passed 30-years-old and is faced with hardship everyday.

‘Cold Breath’ stars Bita Baderan, Majid Mozaffari, Parichehr Riali, Hamideh Barati and Ezzatollah Ramezanifar.

The cast and crew of the film did not attend the festival due to Trump’s controversial travel ban of citizens of seven predominantly Muslim nations, including Iran.

Meanwhile, ‘What Children Do’ by Dean Peterson from the US won the Grand Jury Prize, while ‘The Ides of Childhood’ co-directed by Sudeshna Sharma and Samar Salam from India grabbed Best Documentary Feature award.

The awards for Best Narrative Short, Best Documentary Short, and Best Animated Short, respectively, went to ‘The Bouquet’ by Julien Segard and Romain Carciofo from France, ‘The Other Side’ by Griselda San Martin from Spain, and ‘Lion Dance’ by Tim Pattinson and Zheng Kang from the US.

‘The Descendants’ directed by Yasser Talebi and ‘Cradle’ directed by Zaniar Lotfi were the other Iranian films that screened during the festival.

The mission of RIFF is to make the world a more compassionate place through the sharing of stories from around the globe, and to help hardworking filmmakers who share this vision.

The 2nd edition of the RIFF was held in the state of Connecticut in the US on May 19-21.

MG/AI