Iran’s ‘Asteroid’ to hit screen at BIFF

Iranian feature ‘Asteroid’ has been scheduled to take part in the Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) in South Korea.

Written and directed by Mehdi Hosseinivand, the feature film will compete in New Currents section of the 26th edition of the South Korean event.

New Currents is a section dedicated to up-and-coming Asian filmmakers’ first or second features that bestows two films with a New Currents Award.

‘Asteroid’ is about Ebrahim, a 12-year-old boy who lives with his mother and five siblings of all ages in a two-room shack in the heart of the desert, far away from a village.

Ebrahim's mother hopes that one day her eldest son and her husband, who went to work two years ago and never returned, will return and the heavy burden of life will be lifted from Ebrahim's shoulders.

Apart from feeding the children and getting identity cards for them, Ebrahim and his mother are busy building a house in the village so that they don't have to walk from the desert to the village every day. Eventually, they manage to build and move to their new house in the village.

The cast list of the movie includes Hadi Kazemi, Ghazal Shojaee, and Ebrahim Zarozehi.

The movie won an award at the 2021 edition of the Fajr International Film Festival in Iran.

Founded in 1996 and being held annually in Haeundae-gu, Busan, the BIFF is one of the most significant film festivals in Asia.

This year’s edition of the event, also set to host Iran’s ‘Cloudy Man’, ‘A Hero’ and ‘Ballad of a White Cow’, is slated for October 6-15.

MG/AG