Directed by Mehdi Zamanpour-Kiasari, the 25-minute documentary will be screened at the 10th edition of the Russian event.
'Water, Wind, Dust, Bread', which took more than a year to produce, shows life in Fahraj Village of Iran’s Yazd Province.
The short doc is a delicate narrative of the life of two children named Abolfazl and Setayesh who experience a different life.
In an oasis in the Iranian desert, 11-year-old Abolfazl picks dates, tends his family’s cows, does his homework, and has fun with his best friend Setayesh.
As they climb the windswept rocks around the oasis or swing amongst the date palms, the camera softly captures their friendship.
Abolfazl's mother bakes delicious bread, and people visit her guesthouse for the peaceful setting.
However, life in the oasis is not without its challenges. Although Abolfazl has a physical impairment, Setayesh has an even greater challenge.
She is a child who doesn’t have a birth certificate, and as a result, she can’t go to school.
The film has already been shown at a number of global events, including the Golden Apricot Yerevan International Film Festival in Armenia, the Seoul International Children’s Film Festival in South Korea, the Mediawave International Film and Music Gathering in Hungary, the ZagrebDox International Documentary Film Festival in Croatia, the MiradasDoc International Film Festival in Spain, the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival in Greece, the Children’s Film Festival Seattle in the US, and the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, where it won the Jury award, and the Doc Edge Festival in New Zealand, where it received a special mention.
The 10th Moscow International Documentary Film Festival DOKer screens independent non-fiction films.
The DOKer is aimed at “analyzing and screening various genres and forms of the world's documentaries as a separate line of cinema in all its esthetic and socio-cultural diversity,” according to an online submission platform.
The 2022 edition of the DOKer is slated to be held in Moscow on August 15-24.
MG/AG