Exclusive on Fajr big winner ‘Night of the Full Moon’

The big winner of the 37th Fajr Film Festival ‘Night of the Full Moon’ recounts a true love story of Abdul-Hamid Rigi, a member of the Jundallah terrorist group.

‘Night of the Full Moon’ is about Abdul-Hamid Rigi, the younger brother of Abdul-Malik Rigi who was a notorious terrorist and former leader of the Jundallah terrorist group in southeastern Iran. 

Hamid Rigi marries Faezeh Mansouri, a woman from Tehran. Faezeh is forced to leave her homeland along with her brother, Shahab, to live in Pakistan where they find themselves involved in the Jundallah rebel activities.

The Rigi brothers were arrested by Iranian security forces and were executed in 2010.

“My film is not about the arrest of Abdul-Malik Rigi,” Abyar said in a press conference, adding, “I tried to look at the religious radicalism through the eyes of the leading character of the film and say that even love can be victimized.”   

“Since the September 11 attacks, we have seen the religious radicalism has been developed, particularly, in our region and I made ‘Night of the Full Moon’ to reflect the suffering of the people in Sistan and Baluchestan Province,” She noted.

To gather information about the Rigi brothers, Abyar met members of the Rigi ethnic group on her trip to the region.

“The Rigi ethnic group needed a film to distinguish them from the Rigi brothers,” said Abyar who called the Rigi ethnic group a respectable tribe.         

Fereshteh Sadr-Orafaee, winner of the Best Actress Award in a Supporting Role for starring as the mother of the Rigi brothers, told media that, “This film depicts how fundamentalism and extremism victimize love and beautiful ambitions and replace them with hatred, rage, hostility and pessimism.”

Sadr-Orafai also spent two weeks living with the Rigi ethnic groups in Sistan and Baluchestan region to get closer to her role in the movie.

“They warmly received me into their homes and invited me to their wedding ceremonies as I learned a lot about their culture and behavior that were so helpful to me,” she said.

The film is co-written by Narges Abyar and Morteza Isfahani, directed by Narges Abyar and produced by Abyar’s husband Mohammad Hossein Qassemi in 2018.  

The flick won as many as six main awards of the 37th Fajr Film Festival, including Best Director, Best Film, Best Leading Actor (Houtan Shakiba), Best Leading Actress (Elnaz Shakerdoust), Best Supporting Actress (Fereshteh Sadr-Orafaee), and Best Makeup (Iman Omidvari).

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