Czech fest honors Iranian filmmaker

The 6th edition of the Festival of Iranian Film in Prague, Czech Republic, has honored the late Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami.

The Czech event paid tribute to the Iranian director with a screening of his movie ‘Like Someone in Love’ on January 15.

The movie, set in an alluring and enticing atmosphere, depicts two days of an interesting emotional connection between a young woman and an 80-year-old widower.

“The final harvest to a 40-year span of an exceptional, ever unpredictable and by all measures triumphant career, ‘Like Someone in Love’ is the last feature by the grand figure of the Iranian cinema, Abbas Kiarostami,” the festival’s website wrote.

The website also expressed admiration for the movie as the “last piece of Kiarostami’s monumental heritage that leaves us all thirsty for all the possible future films we would have loved to watch from him.”

Kiarostami was a multitalented artist and an exceptional man who joyfully embraced life. He was winner of the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Festival in 1997 for his film ‘Taste of Cherry’, passing away on July 4, 2016.

He is mostly known as a screenwriter, film editor, art director and producer as well as a poet, photographer, painter, illustrator and graphic designer.

The cinematic works by the internationally acclaimed filmmaker have been hailed by various festivals around the world.

Several prestigious festivals and film events have already honored the noted Iranian director as well as paid homage to Kiarostami by presenting retrospectives of his work.

‘Valderama’ directed by Abbas Amini received the Best Film Award selected by the jury at this edition of the event and the award for the Best Film selected by the audience went to ‘The Salesman’ by acclaimed director Asghar Farhadi.

The 6th edition of the Festival of Iranian Film in Czech was held on January 10-15 and January 17-18, respectively in Prague and Brno, while it is slated to be continued in Bratislava.

MG/AI