Iran cineastes hail 36th FFF contender

Several Iranian cineastes have hailed the 36th Fajr Film Festival (FFF) contender ‘The Lost Strait’ directed by Bahram Tavakkoli.

Majid Majidi, the director of the acclaimed movie ‘Muhammad, the Messenger of God’ praised his fellow director Tavakkoli for the precise portrayal of a true tragedy from the Iraq-Iran war.

Following watching the movie at the 36th FFF in Tehran, Majidi said “I admire Tavakkoli’s truthfulness. He was not in the war, but has depicted the genuineness and honesty of our soldiers in the best way in his movie.”

Fatemeh Motamed-Arya, the actress of war dramas such as ‘Abajan’ and ‘Gilaneh’ also highly praised Tavakkoli’s ‘The Lost Strait’.

Watching the movie during the 36th FFF in Tehran, Motamed-Arya wrote “The Lost Strait is like no other war film. It is like its own self and like its own topic; simple, but powerful.”

She also noted that it is powerful in the knowledge of the director and simple in portraying the heroes.

“The heroes, who are being shot, wounded and are martyred without doing strange and unimaginable actions. They defend themselves, they escape, collect the wounded soldiers, stay thirsty but get up and become heroes and remain heroes in our minds so that we would not like to take our eyes off them,” she added.

“We like them and follow them. They become real heroes with the reality they have been into, without forcing you to believe they have come from the place of claiming to improve the world,” Motamed-Arya continued.

Several other cineastes have also admired ‘The Lost Strait’ for its storyline, casting, performances, and being an example of standard production. The film is likely to win big at the 36th FFF.

The story of ‘The Lost Strait’ (Abu Ghuraib Strait) is set in the last days of the war just before Iran accepted UN Resolution 598, which ended the war on July 20, 1988.

Starring Javad Ezzati, Amir Jadidi, Mehdi Pakdel, Ali Soleimani, Mehdi Qorbani and Hamid-Reza Azarang, the film depicts how Iran’s Ammar battalion battled against the Iraqi forces in an unequal encounter in the Abu Ghuraib Strait near Dehloran in Iran’s Ilam Province.

Iranian forces were busy in the war in different regions and front lines. Ammar soldiers had been granted some days off to return home, but were dispatched to the strait after they got informed that Iraqi forces were advancing to Fakkeh and Sharhani regions in Khuzestan and Ilam provinces.

MG/MG