Serbian film festival to screen Iranian films in Belgrade

Various sections of the 45th edition of FEST, Belgrade’s international film festival has scheduled to screen a number of Iranian movies.

‘Malaria’ directed by Parviz Shahbazi and ‘Inversion’ directed by Behnam Behzadi will vie with 13 other feature films from around the world at the main competition section of the event.

‘Malaria’ tells the story of a young woman who escapes from home, but she tells her father she’s been kidnapped to cover her tracks. With her family in hot pursuit, she takes up with a band of street musicians and forms an elaborate plan for a more permanent escape.

Shahbazi’s flick has taken part in several international events, including the Venice International Film Festival and received a number of awards, including the Grand Prix award at the Warsaw Film Festival 2016.

Behzadi’s ‘Inversion’ is a quietly dramatic tale of a woman in Tehran who decides to take charge and find ways to better express herself in the smog-teeming metropolis.

Its title refers to thermal inversion, a meteorological condition causing air pollution.

‘Inversion’ has recently received the award for Best Feature Film at the 21st edition of the MedFilm Festival in Italy.

The Iranian film won the award, while more than 90 different feature movies and documentaries took part at the event.

‘Inversion’ as Behzadi’s fourth directed feature film, has previously taken part in the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival and grabbed positive reviews both by critics and audiences.

The movie was screened in many international festivals, including those in France, Canada, Germany, UK and India.

The Serbian event will also pay tribute to the late Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami with a screening of films ‘Take Me Home’ and ‘76 Minutes and 15 Seconds with Abbas Kiarostami’ made by Seifollah Samadian.

It has arranged four screenings for Asghar Farhadi’s ‘The Salesman’, which is competing for an Oscar in the Best Foreign-Language Film category at the 89th Academy Awards.

Launched in 1971, FEST is an annual film festival held in Belgrade. The 45th edition of the festival will be held from February 24 to March 5, 2017.

MG/AI