Iran’s ‘The Absent Director’ en route to Santa Barbara Int’l fest

Iran’s ‘The Absent Director’ has been set to present Iran at the 37th edition of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF) in the US.

Written by Naghmeh Samini and directed by Arvand Dashtaray, the 85-minute suspense/mystery film will be competing at the Middle East competition section of the 2022 edition of the SBIFF.

‘The Absent Director’ is in one continuous take. It follows the various members of a young Iranian theater company during their secret rehearsals of Macbeth at their director’s home in Tehran, while he works with them remotely from Paris via video call.

Their dream is to submit the play to the Edinburgh Theater Festival on time, but things get complicated when their personal conflicts escalate, and their hidden agendas come to light. The heated tensions reach the climax when a mysterious tragedy threatens to bring their work to a complete halt.

The cast list of the movie includes the director, Marene Van Holk, Azadeh Mirzaee, and Tahereh Hezaveh.

So far, the flick has been screened at the Busan International Film Festival in South Korea, as well as the Berlin International Film Festival in Germany.

Founded in 1986, the SBIFF is one of the leading film festivals in the US. The event serves as a platform to celebrate the art of world cinema.

The upcoming edition of the festival will take place in California on March 2-12, 2022.

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