Light to the World fest awards Iranian films

The Light to the World International Youth Film Festival in Russia has honored several Iranian flicks.

The jury of the animation category at the Russian event presented diploma of the 1st degree laureate to ‘The Rotation’ by Hazhir Asadi and ‘Stars in the Rain’ by Sara Namjou.

The diploma of the 1st degree laureate in the foreign film category went to ‘Before Darkness’ directed and written by Mosayyeb Hanaee. The film also won the awards for best screenplay and best actress (Shahbanou Mohammadi).

Jury of the video clip section also honored ‘Farrash’ (footman) by Mohammad-Mehdi Fekrian with the diploma of the 3rd degree laureate and the special diploma for originality.

A special diploma in the non-competitive program of the festival was presented to ‘The Lower Floor’ by Omidreza Kheirkhah.

‘Stars in the Rain’ is about little miracles in daily life that make it possible to tolerate hardships. “On a rainy day, the passengers of a train observe a little boy getting on the train. The little boy returns light to their world by his little miracles,” the plot of the animation reads.

“The Rotation” tells the story of a country where there is a war between two tribes over claiming the sun in the sky. As a result of that war, the sun is annihilated and a volcano erupts. The tribes are now dead and a new sun is made, both done by the lava. Several centuries pass and the humans are still at war over claiming the sun in the sky.

‘Before Darkness’ tells the story of an Afghan woman with a little baby and a group of human smugglers who attempt to cross the Iranian border towards Europe. Since she does not have enough money to pay the fare for herself and her child, she is forced to hide her baby in a bag.

In the middle of the trip, however, the baby makes a noise calling the smugglers’ attention to her presence in the woman’s bag. They expel the woman from the car, but the woman’s wailing and begging forces them to give her one hour to come up with the fare for her baby, before it gets dark. As the woman is unable to come up with the money, she makes a harsh decision: she abandons the baby on the street in a border town.

The tenth anniversary of the international youth film festival Light to the World has been dedicated to the 275th anniversary of the birth of the Russian naval commander, Admiral F. F. Ushakov.

The festival, co-organized by the Rybinsk Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate and the National Fund for the Support of Copyright Holders, was launched in 2011.

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Russian fest awards Iranian animation ‘Stars in the Rain’

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