Bulgarian Sofia MENAR screening Iranian ‘Castle of Dreams’

Iranian feature ‘Castle of Dreams’ is competing at the 12 edition of the Sofia MENAR Film Festival underway in the Bulgarian capital.

Directed and produced by Reza Mirkarimi, the film tells the story of a 42-year-old father of two. He unintentionally kills a relative. A court of law rules the murder was accidental.

Getting out of prison, he leaves his wife and kids and moves to another city. After a while the father must go back to his home town as his wife is brain-dead.

He has to take his son and daughter away from their mother who is hospitalized. Although reluctant, he tries every means to fulfill the children’s fantasy of building a dream castle that was drawn by their mother.

Starring role of the film has been portrayed by Hamed Behdad who won the Best Actor award from the 22nd Shanghai International Film Festival in China.

The 86-minute film brought Mirkarimi the Best Director award and the highest prize at the Shanghai event.

‘Castle of Dreams’ also received the awards for best film and best director at the Batumi International Art-House Film Festival in Georgia as well as the Simorgh Crystal awards for Best Screenplay and Best Music at the 2019 Fajr Film Festival in Iran.

It won some other awards at events such as the 4th Slemani International Film Festival in Iraq, the 23rd Family Film Awards in the US, the 20th Italian Asiatica Film Festival, the 56th Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival in Turkey, the 39th Cambridge Film Festival in the UK, and a nomination at the 13th Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA) in Australia.

The film has hit the screen at several global events, including the 20th Asiatica Film Festival in Italy, the 9th Iranian Film Festival Australia, the 2019 Rabat International Festival of Film in Morocco, the 43rd Sao Paulo International Film Festival in Brazil, the 2019 Carthage Film Festival in Tunisia, the 24th International Film Festival of Kerala in India, the 20th Tbilisi International Film Festival in Georgia, and the 18th Dhaka International Film Festival in Bangladesh.

ifilm has interviewed the actor Behdad, the actresses Zhila Shahi, Youna Tadayyon and Niousha Alipour, as well as the director of ‘Castle of Dreams’. Click here to watch the report.

MENAR stands for the Middle East and North Africa Region, and the festival spotlights top cinema productions from these areas.

The 12th Sofia MENAR has been slated for January 14-30, 2020.

MG/AG