Mobarak puppet festival picks Brazilian, Slovenian plays

The 18th edition of the International Puppet Festival Tehran – Mobarak in Iran has picked two foreign performances to join the gala.

‘Babysitter Curtain’ from Brazil and ‘Somewhere Else’ from Slovenia are the selected performances for the 2021 edition of the event.

Made by Luis André Cherubini and inspired by Virginia Woolf’s ‘Nurse Lugton’s Curtain’, ‘Babysitter Curtain’ tells the story of a nanny who snoozes while sewing a huge curtain and dreams of the village embroidered on the fabric.

Made by Tin Grabnar, ‘Somewhere Else’ is about a little girl, who finds herself caught in the middle of a war. It is through her eyes that viewers observe her changing city, filled with horrors, violence and fear, but hope, too.

Threatening planes are flying over the city, the streets are empty and there is no food left on the shelves in the store. The school is closed, and every now and then gunshots are heard nearby. Her environment gradually changes and becomes intolerable.

The Mobarak festival is online due to the coronavirus pandemic and the puppets shows will be streamed on some Iranian platforms.

The organizers announced this edition of the festival is organized nationwide due to the pandemic; however, the two plays have been selected for performance on the last days of the event, Saturday and Sunday.

Director of the festival workshop Fahimeh Mirza-Hassani said “This festival has a good background, and is quite well known in the world. Many international groups were interested to take part in the event, however, we could only choose two plays that were suitable for virtual performances.”

Some 57 puppet shows are being performed during the gala which has been slated for February 28-March 7 on some Iranian video-on-demand (VoD) platforms.

The closing ceremony of the event will honor two veteran artists of Puppet Theater, Iraj Mohammadi and Mohammad-Hassan Abouee-Mehrizi, with lifetime achievement awards on Sunday.

MG/MG