National lineup for 13th Cinéma Vérité is unveiled

The 13th edition of the Cinéma Vérité, Iran’s major international documentary film festival, has announced the lineup of 19 titles for its national competition section.

Most notable among the highlights of the lineup are ‘It Is Winter’ by Mehrdad Zahedian, ‘Copper Notes of a Dream’ by Reza Farahmand, ‘The Forbidden Strings’ by Hassan Nouri, and ‘No Place for Angels’ by Sam Kalantari.

‘It Is Winter’, which is about Tehran’s Lalezar Street, won the award for best feature documentary during the 21st Iran Cinema Celebration in August 2019.

Lalezar Street was regarded as Iran’s Broadway and cradle of modernism during the 1950s and 1960s.

‘Copper Notes of a Dream’ is about a ten-year-old Palestinian refugee, Malouk, who lives in Jarmuk, a suburb of Damascus in Syria, which was ruined during the war with Daesh.

Malouk dreams of becoming a singer. Together with his older sister Ghofran, he is planning to organize a concert with professional musicians.

To earn money for the concert, Malouk and some friends pull the copper wires out of the walls of vacant buildings that are riddled with bullets and rockets, and write apologies for their theft on the walls, in hope the people who have fled will understand, if they ever return.

A co-production of Afghanistan, Iran and Qatar, ‘The Forbidden Strings’ tells the story of Akbar, Souri, Mohammed and Hakim, young Afghan immigrants in Iran who have formed a rock band. They dream of performing live in a concert in their homeland.

‘No Place for Angels’ is about the national Iranian women’s hockey team for the first time.

‘Marriage Project’ co-directed by Hessam Eslami and Atieh Attarzadeh, ‘Lunar Eclipse’ by Mohsen Ostadali, ‘The Thin Red Line’ by Farzad Khoshdast, and ‘Scenes from a Separation’ by Vahid Sedaqat are also notable in the lineup.

Organized by the Documentary and Experimental Film Center, the first edition of the Cinéma Vérité was held in 2007.

Over the past decade it has emerged as one of the important events on Iran's documentary film calendar.

The 13th edition of the Cinéma Vérité will be held on December 9-16, 2019.

MG/MG