‘Holy Bread’ scoops awards at Trento Film Festival

Iranian documentary ‘Holy Bread’ has succeeded to scoop two awards at the 69th Trento Film Festival in Italy.

Directed by late Rahim Zabihi, the doc received the Club Alpino Italiano Golden Award for its perfect representation of mountain life and mountain people.

‘Holy Bread’ also grabbed the Peace and Human Rights Award of the main competition section of the Italian film event.

Some thirteen films from France, Morocco, Switzerland, Italy, Uruguay, Germany, Spain, Ukraine, Austria, Poland, Bulgaria, Greenland, China and Belgium were also screened in the official competition of the event.

The 54-minute ‘Holy Bread’ highlights the dangerous work of some cross-border couriers who transport heavy goods on foot across the Iranian border passing through rocky, steep and slippery mountainous pathways to make a living to support their families. 

The workers face numerous challenges as they walk along dangerous paths, suffering from injuries as well as being shot at by border police, and even dying along the hazardous route.

Produced by Touraj Aslani, ‘Holy Bread’ depicts powerful scenes captured by the director’s filming crew while accompanying the workers for 9 years, documenting what can be described as a disclosure of a group of men whose lives are driven by hunger, poverty and despair in the lowest margins of the social class. 

The film has so far hit the screen at various global events, including the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival in the US and the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam in the Netherlands.

 The Trento Film Festival, which is one of the oldest European film festivals focusing on mountain explorations, took place online from May 9 to 16, 2021 in Trento.

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