Yari film festival to screen 11 Iranian titles

The 19th edition of the Yari Iranian Film Festival in Sweden has scheduled to screen six features and five shorts.

‘Hat-Trick’ by Ramtin Lavvafi, ‘Reza’ by Alireza Motamedi, and ‘Astigmatism’ by Majid-Reza Mostafavi are the features that will go on the Swedish screen the first day of the festival.

The 84-minute ‘Hat-Trick’ starts with Lida and her husband, Farzad, attending a party where they see their friend Keyvan and his new friend Raha. On the way back home, the four in Farzad’s car have an accident but a question mark hangs over whether they have hit a person or an object. The next setting is Raha’s home where she lives alone. The friends being in that house together is the beginning of many mysteries to unravel.

‘Reza’, a romantic comedy, revolves around the life of an author named Reza who begins to write a story about his ancestor's immigration to the historic city of Isfahan. Meanwhile, Reza and his wife separate from each other through divorce after nine years of marriage, but he finds it difficult to start a new life without his ex whom he still loves. Reza must delve into all aspects of his personality to find out why his better half and the woman he loves cannot tolerate living with him and wants a divorce.

‘Astigmatism’ narrates the story of a couple, Ensi and Zabin, who live in the suburbs of Tehran expecting a baby; however, their destiny is not as they could predict.

The first day of the program will also offer two short films titled ‘Manicure’ and ‘Not Yet’.

'Manicure' tells the story of a young man having trouble coping with the sudden death of his wife, while facing pressure from an angry mob of rural residents after a shocking fact is revealed during her burial.

The 15-minute ‘Not Yet’ is about Hasti who has just turned 21. She studies abroad and her parents in Iran want to congratulate her online. Despite the distractions of her life abroad, Hasti has missed her old home in Iran. Meanwhile, her parents are intent on concealing their crumbling marriage.

The second day of the event will screen ‘Orange Days’ by Arash Lahouti, ‘Dressage’ by Pouya Badkoubeh, and ‘The Dark Room’ by Rouhollah Hejazi.

The 102-minute ‘Orange Days’ tells the story of Aban, the only female contractor in the cutthroat and male-dominated orange harvesting industry, who enters a competition to win a large contract. Her efforts remain futile while anyone involved in her story tries to fail her.

The 95-minute ‘Dressage’ tells the story of Golsa, a 16-year-old girl who lives with her middle-class family in Tehran suburbs. She spends most of her time hanging out with a group of disaffected friends. After an incident where a little bit of fun goes wrong, the friends decide on a course of action that may have unexpected consequences for all of them.

‘The Dark Room’ narrates the story of the young couple and their 5-year-old son, Amir. It presents a new chapter of Farhad and Haleh’s life. The couple has recently moved to a new building. Amir is lost in the desert just in front of the building, however, his parents find him soon. But then, Amir tells his father someone has abused him and that makes Farhad very upset. The troubled father is now desperately looking for a suspect who has harassed his little boy and Haleh criticizes Farhad for being incapable of finding the insulter.

‘Marziyeh’, ‘Retouch’, and ‘Birthday night’ are the short titles of the second day.

‘Marzieh’ narrates the story of a couple whose life goes through some challenges after they return home from a relative’s funeral.

‘Retouch’ is about a young woman whose husband dies before her eyes and she just observes the tragic scene.

‘Birthday Night’ narrates the story of two friends and business partners, Ahmad and Ali, who face unexpected challenges on their birthday night.

The Yari is organized every year by Yari, an Uppsala-based charity organization that helps street children in Iran to go to school and also raises funds for the construction of schools and libraries for children.

The 19th edition of the Yari is slated for October 12-13, 2019.

MG/MG