Nigeria Realtime Festival honors Iranian titles

The Realtime International Film Festival (RTF) in Nigeria has honored three Iranian short films.

Out of nine short attendees from Iran, three titles have been awarded at the 5th edition of the Nigerian film event.

‘Load’ by Leila Omran succeeded to grab the award for most liked film on the portal of the festival. ‘Load’ narrates the life of a working young woman who tries to solve a problem by hiding something, but she loses many things.

‘Fireworks Wednesday’ by director Reza Mouri brought Amir-Reza Faramarzi award for best child actor.

The flick is about a teenage boy who lives in an oil town in Khouzestan Province. He argues with his friend, threatening to burn his house. The boy does not know that the night is a fireworks game. He does not sleep the night, so he will protect his friend's house built on gas pipes.

Also, the award for best production design went to Amir Athar Soheili for his debut feature ‘Women Who Run with Wolves’.

The story of this film takes place on the fringes of the war. However, it cannot be considered a war drama. The story of ‘Women Who Run with The Wolves’ only takes place in a war location and can be described as a romantic drama.

“Thousands of years ago, Yunus (Jonah) became doubtful and slipped. The instant his story was about to reach its pinnacle, the fish’s gut begins Jonah’s story. Now, a thousand years later, Zhaleh becomes doubtful and slips and when her story is about to finish at its highest”, a short synopsis of the film reads.

ifilm actress Laya Zanganeh plays the lead role in the film.

The flick was previously screened at the 25th Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF) in India.

‘The Dark Side of Moon’ by Reza Naseri Saray, ‘Baraka, The Cow’ by Komeil Soheili, ‘Building No. 63’ by Nazanin Sadat Hosseini, ‘Tasoa’, ‘Background’ and ‘2’ by Vahid Haghverdi were other Iranian contestants at the event.    

RTF aims to “to build a truly International, all-inclusive and remotely accessible Film Festival”. It champions an artistic baseline where equity and openness are enhanced among creative artists, filmmakers and film enthusiasts.

The Realtime International Film Festival was slated to take part on June 7-12, 2020, but due to the coronavirus pandemic, the organizers held the festival online from April 7th to 13th, 2020 in Lagos, Nigeria’s largest city with the winners being announced on April 14.

MM/MM