San Francisco to screen Iranian shorts

The 10th edition of the annual Iranian Film Festival in San Francisco, the US, has scheduled to screen 11 short films from Iran.

Notable among the films to go on the US screen in September are ‘Retouch’ by Kaveh Mazaheri, ‘Animal’ by Bahram and Bahman Ark, The Switchman’ by Mehdi Khorramian and ‘Lunch Time’ by Alireza Qasemi.

Produced by the Iranian Young Cinema Society, ‘Retouch’ is about a young woman whose husband dies before her eyes and she just observes the tragic scene.

The short film managed to win the award at Short Film Award section, along with ‘Skull + Bone’ and ‘Hot Winter: A film by Dick Pierre’ from the US, ‘It's Alright’ from Norway, as well as ‘Ten Meter Tower’ from Sweden.

It has previously won Best Short Film Awards at the Krakow International Film Festival, the Palm Springs International Film Festival, and the Tribeca Film Festival, all in the US.

The 15-minute ‘Animal’ is about a man who wants to pass the border unlawfully; so he hunts a ram and decides to escape disguised as the animal.

Ark brothers’ film won the second prize in the Cinéfondation category at the 70th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in May.

‘The Switchman’ is about a switchman who has been waiting for his beloved for a long period of time, but it seems that the beloved is only in his dreams.

Khorramian’s work, produced at Iran’s Documentary and Experimental Film Center (DEFC) grabbed the Signor Rossi Award of the Italian festival on Sunday.

The 15-minute ‘Lunch Time’ is about a high school girl who has come to the hospital to identify the body of her mother. The people in charge at the hospital would not let her into the morgue because of her young age.

After being nominated for a short film Palme d’Or at 70th Cannes, the film won awards for the best title, the best dialogue and the best screenplay in the short film section of the 5th Porto Alegre Screenwriting Festival – FRAPA, Brazil.

‘Frequency’ by Ali Khoshdouni-Farahani, ‘Red Peace’ by Rahim Toufan, ‘Border Passage’ by Majid Sedaqat, and ‘White House’ by Arastou Mafakheri are in the lineup as well.

The event will also screen four short Iranian animations, including ‘Dash Akol’ by Hajar Mehrani, ‘A Thousand Legends’ by Asghar Saffar and Abbas Jalali-Yekta, as well as ‘Icky’ by Parastou Kargar.

Launched in 2008 to explore and support young Iranian filmmakers from around the world, the 10th edition of the Iranian Film Festival in San Francisco is slated for September 23-24, 2017.

MG/MMF