‘Castle of Dreams’ wins big at Antalya Golden Orange Filmfest

Iranian family drama ‘Castle of Dreams’ by Reza Mirkarimi has dominated the key competition category at the 56th Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival in Turkey.

The film took a 100,000-Turkish Lira award for best director, while its lead role, Hamed Behdad, shared best actor award of the International Feature Film Competition section of the event.

This year, German director and screenwriter Wolfgang Becker headed the jury of the International Feature Film Competition. The rest members of the jury were comprised of Icelandic screen writer and director Runar Runarsson, Dutch actor Johanna ter Steege, Polish producer Ewa Puszczynska and Busan Film Festival director Jay Jeon.

‘Castle Of Dreams’ has already won three awards at the Shanghai International Film Festival: the Best Actor Award, the Best Director Award, and the Golden Goblet.

The film has also won two awards at the Batumi International Art-House Film Festival in Georgia and was selected as the best film according to critics in the West and East Eurasian Film Festival (Orenburg, Russia).

Best director award of the 4th Slemani International Film Festival in Iraq and best film award at Int’l Film Award "East – West. Golden Arch" in Russia are also among the honors received by the flick.

A short synopsis for the film reads “Jalal Moradi, a 42-year-old father of two, kills a family in an accident. In the court of law, the murder is recognized as accidental killing without intent. After getting out of prison, he leaves his wife and kids and moves to another city. Two years later, he must go back to his hometown as his wife is brain-dead.”

Hamed Behdad, Mohammad Asgari, Zhila Shahi, Akbar Ayeen, Azadeh Nobahar, Mohammad Ashkanfar, Youna Tadayyon, and Niyousha Alipour make the cast list of the flick.

Traditionally known as Turkey’s most prestigious and oldest film festival, the Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival is held annually since 1963, considers for selection feature films from Asia, Europe and Middle East countries.

The event was launched on October 26, 2019 and wrapped up on November 01, 2019 in Antalya.

ifilm exclusive report on Iranian feature ‘Castle of Dreams’

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