Turkish filmfest honors Iranian director Majid Majidi

The second edition of the Konya International Film Festival (SUFISIN) in Turkey has honored acclaimed Iranian filmmaker Majid Majidi as best director.

The Turkish event awarded the well-known director during a ceremony on Saturday. The SUFISIN also screened two films by Majidi.

Addressing the ceremony, secretary of the festival Abdulsettar Yarar paid tribute to Majidi for making cinematic works with humanitarian and moral messages and described Iran’s modern cinema as messenger of spirituality.

The secretary had invited Majidi with his films ‘Willow Tree’ and ‘Children of Heaven’ to this edition of the SUFISIN. The films were warmly welcomed by the audience.

‘Willow Tree’, which was aired by ifilm, is about a blind middle-aged university professor named Yousef who regains his vision after surgery. Everyone is overjoyed, except for Yousef, who realizes his life isn’t what he’d imagined.

As a touching and uplifting movie about compassion and familial bonds, ‘Children of Heaven’ was the first Iranian film nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film in Oscars 1998.

‘Children of Heaven’ tells the story of a little boy named Ali who loses his sister’s shoes. Knowing their family is poor, the siblings try not to reveal the shoes are lost until they can get them back by trying a new way to win a new pair.

The SUFISIN only screens films with religious and mystic themes in the city of Konya, a 1000-year culture and civilization capital.

Reza Mirkarimi was the only Iranian director who received Turkey’s plaque of honor at the first edition of the SUFISIN last year. He was invited to attend the festival as director of ‘Under the Moonlight’.

The second SUFISIN was held on May 2-5, 2019.

MG/MG