Colombian festival awards 'The Wasteland'

Iranian feature 'The Wasteland' has been honored at the 37th Bogota International Film Festival (BIFF) in Colombia.

Ahmad Bahrami's second directorial experience was bestowed with the Best Film Audience Award (Premio Radiónica de la juventud) at the 2021 Colombian film event.  

Shot in black-and-white, ‘The Wasteland’ tells the story of a lonely man who works as a supervisor in a bricklaying factory as a go-between. The owner of the factory once brings together all the workers and tells them something that changes their lives.

The flick has been praised by film critics at the 77th Venice International Film Festival in Italy, where it received the FIPRESCI award of the event.

In October 2020, the film made two festival entries at the 65th Valladolid International Film Festival (Seminci) in Spain as well as the 11th Middle East Now (Festival of Cinema and Contemporary Culture on the Middle East) in Italy.

Among the rest of the global festival appearances of ‘The Wasteland’ include the 2020 annual Tokyo International Film Festival in Japan, the 31st Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF), the 2020 Stockholm International Film Festival in Sweden, the 2020 Subversive Film Festival in Croatia, the 78th Golden Globe Awards, the 18th Chennai Int’l Film Festival (CIFF) in India, the 2020 Bildrausch Film Festival in Switzerland, the 21stthe New Horizons International Film Festival in Poland, the 69th Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) in Australia and the 45th Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF).

‘The Wasteland’ is also the recipient of the best film award at the 2020 Subversive Film Festival in Croatia as well as the best cinematography award of the 15th Asian Film Awards (AFAA) in Busan/Tokyo.

Founded in 1984 as a national cinematic event, the BIFF aims “to showcase young spirit risky films featuring new trends, in response to the audience of thousands of young people demanding more and better films,” according to the event’s official website.

The 37th BIFF was held in the Colombian capital on October 20-28, 2021.

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Director, actress talk on ‘The Wasteland’

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