Shanghai Film Festival unveils ‘Old Men Never Die’

The 23rd Shanghai International Film Festival (SIFF) in China has unveiled Reza Jamali’s ‘Old Men Never Die’ for its virtual screening.  

Making the 7th title to represent Iran at the Chinese film festival, ‘Old Men Never Die’ will be competing at the Asian New Talent section of the event.

The Asian New Talent section is dedicated to providing valuable opportunities for rising filmmakers and film works to display themselves on the international stage.

The flick makes Reza Jamali’s directorial debut produced in 2019.

The 85-min film is about one-hundred-year-old Aslan who is living with his other single old fellows in a remote village. 

“Since Aslan came to the village 45 years ago, nobody has ever died in the village. Now, most of the population are old and disabled men. All being done with life, they believe the only way to bring death back to the village is to commit suicide,” read as a short synopsis of the film.

It is worthwhile to mention that ‘Old Men Never Die’ has attended various film festivals across the globe, succeeding to grab best actor award from the 3rd International Bak Film Festival in Turkey as well as the Spirit of Asia Award from the 32nd Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF). 

It also took part at the 50th International Film Festival of India (IFFI).

Besides ‘Old Men Never Die’, six more Iranian titles will be also attending the event, including ‘Just 6.5’ by Saeed Roustaee, ‘Crab’ by Shiva Sadeq-Asadi, Kazem Mollaee’s ‘The Badger’, ‘Najibeh’ written and directed by Mostafa Gandomkar, Farnouosh Abedi’s 11-minute animation ‘Malakout’ and Abbas Amini’s fiction drama‘I Am Here!’.

The SIFF is considered by many to be the second biggest film festival in Asia. The first edition of the festival was held from October 7 to 14, 1993. 

Due to concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic, the 23rd Shanghai Int’l Film Festival, originally scheduled to take place between June 13 to 22, 2020, will be held both offline and online  from July 25 to August 2 in a bid to minimize the impact of the pandemic.

MM/FM