Swiss fest to showcase Iranian ‘Beloved’

Iranian Film Festival Zurich in Switzerland (IFFZ) has scheduled to screen the acclaimed documentary ‘Beloved’.

Directed by Yasser Talebi, the doc will be showcased at the sixth edition of the Swiss event.

‘Beloved’ 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, the Beirut International Women Film Festival in Lebanon, and the 67th Trento International Film Festival in Italy where it won the jury special mention and a UNESCO honorable mention.

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, 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, won the Significant Film of the Week mention at the China International Green Film Week, and grabbed the Best Film about Mountain Culture award at the 37th Torello's International Festival of Mountain and Adventure Films in Spain.

Most recently the documentary has won the Best Documentary award at the 18th Dhaka International Film Festival in Bangladesh and the grand prix at the 2019 edition of the Autrans international Mountain film festival in France.

The IFFZ aims to fill the cultural gap between Iranians and Swiss as well as the many foreigners living in Switzerland.

The event defines itself as “A Platform for presenting the Iranian culture and tradition and for building a bridge between different cultures by the means of the universal language of art and especially the 7th art, cinema”.

This edition of the festival will be held online on May 28-June 03, 2020 due to COVID-19 pandemic.

MG/AG