Spanish filmfest honors Iran’s ‘Beloved’

The 37th Torello's International Festival of Mountain and Adventure Films (BBVA) in Spain has awarded Iranian documentary ‘Beloved’.

Directed by Yasser Talebi, the acclaimed documentary received the Best Film about Mountain Culture award at the 2019 edition of the Spanish event.

The documentary is about the difficult but favorable life of an 83-year-old mother named Firouzeh who runs a unique life in the Alborz Mountains in north Iran.

Firouzeh hikes across the rugged landscape carrying bundles of wood. When she was a young girl, a marriage was arranged for her with an older man, with whom she had 11 children. Now, none of her children come to visit her and her attempts to get closer to them remain futile.

The 63-minute documentary has attended many global events, including the 2018 International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam in the Netherlands, the 16th Big Sky Documentary Film Festival in the US, the 69th Berlin International Film Festival in Germany, the 37th Fajr Film Festival in Iran, the 38th International Istanbul Film Festival in Turkey, the 16th Golden Apricot Yerevan International Film Festival in Armenia, the 16th EBS International Documentary Festival in South Korea, the 8th Persian Film Festival in Australia, the 64th Valladolid International Film Festival in Spain, the 22nd Religion Today Film Festival in Italy, the 2019 Africa International Film Festival in Nigeria, and the 67th Trento International Film Festival in Italy where it won the jury special mention and a UNESCO honorable mention.

Most recently it received the best feature documentary award and a diploma at the 15th Kazan International Muslim Film Festival in Russia's Republic of Tatarstan, a special mention at the 25th Shanghai TV Festival in China, nomination at the 33rd Pärnu International Documentary and Anthropology Film Festival in Estonia, Special Prize at the Kranjska Gora International Film Festival in Slovenia, and NETPAC Award at the 2019 Ulju Mountain Film Festival in South Korea

‘Beloved’ has also taken the first place among the top five mid-length films selected by the Canadian audience at the 26th Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival in Toronto and received the best photography award and the High School Students Award at the Journey Section of The 14th Sole Luna Doc Film Festival in Italy.

The BBVA is one of the most important festivals of its kind in the world. Each year the best films from around the world relating to mountains and mountain culture are screened and entered into competition.

The wide range of thematic possibilities stipulated in the Festival rules means that over the ten day period of the festival many different kinds of films are shown; including films about expeditions, nature documentaries, adventure sports, documentaries about ecology, etc.

The 37th edition of the BBVA was held on November 15-24, 2019 in Torello, Spain.

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MG/MG