Iranian films withdraw from London fest

Two Iranian dos and one animation have withdrawn from London Kurdish Film Festival in the UK on the grounds of separatist propaganda.  

According to a Monday media release by Documentary & Experimental Film Center in Iran, ‘Children of the Night’ by Behrouz Nouranipour and Ziba Arjang's short animation ‘Sky Sun, Tile Sun’ are among the withdrawn titles from the event.

An earlier media report said that the Iranian doc ‘Car Wash’ by Mohsen Sakha also walked away from the fest on separatist grounds.

The 12th LKFF, hosting the biggest edition of its kind under the name of the Global Kurdish Film Festival, changed the country of origin for these Iranian movies on its site, writing “East Kurdistan” in a cunning way that denotes a separatist move.

Later on Monday, the center issued a second release, noting that as soon as the DEFC became aware of the issue, it showed its official objection to the festival organizers and withdrew the films from the UK film event as a sign of objection to the separatist move.

Iran is home to a wide variety of ethnic minorities, including the Kurdish people who live in peace and harmony with other ethnicities in the country.    

AG/AG