Ahmad Bahrami to attend 'The Wasteland' Q&A session in LA

A screening and review session of Iranian feature film 'The Wasteland' by Ahmad Bahrami is set to be held on March 14, 2022 in Los Angeles with the presence of the director.

Ahmad Bahrami, who is also the winner of the FIPRESCI award at the 77th Venice International Film Festival in Italy, has been invited to the United States to attend a three-week event organized by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA).

As part of the program is a Q&A session to be held following the screening of Bahrami’s multiple award-winning film 'The Wasteland'.

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) is “a nonprofit organization of journalists and photographers who report on the entertainment industry activity and interests in the United States for media predominantly outside the US,” writes the official website of the association.

The program also provides a chance for directors to submit their screenplays for review and production in Hollywood film companies.

Bahrami, along with his co-writer and producer Mohammad Reza Eyni, have presented a script to attract Hollywood production companies and financier to finance their film.

Writer and director Eyni has worked with reputable companies such as India-based Green Media and New York-based production company Story Syndicate, each of which has been nominated and won Academy Awards several times before.   

Eyni's recent co-directed short ‘Our Iranian Lockdown’, featured on the Guardian, was nominated for IDA Awards in the best short-form series category. He is the co-director of a Netflix Original feature documentary ‘Convergence’.

‘The Wasteland’, Bahrami's second directorial experience, is shot in black-and-white.

It tells the story of a lonely man who works as a supervisor in a bricklaying factory as a go-between. The owner of the factory once brings together all the workers and tells them something that changes their lives.

In October 2020, the film made two festival entries at the 65th Valladolid International Film Festival (Seminci) in Spain as well as the 11th Middle East Now (Festival of Cinema and Contemporary Culture on the Middle East) in Italy.

Among the rest of the global festival appearances of ‘The Wasteland’ include the 2020 annual Tokyo International Film Festival in Japan, the 31st Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF), the 2020 Stockholm International Film Festival in Sweden, the 2020 Subversive Film Festival in Croatia, the 78th Golden Globe Awards, the 18th Chennai Int’l Film Festival (CIFF) in India, the 2020 Bildrausch Film Festival in Switzerland, the 21stthe New Horizons International Film Festival in Poland, the 69th Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) in Australia and the 45th Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF).

‘The Wasteland’ is also the recipient of the best film award at the 2020 Subversive Film Festival in Croatia as well as the best cinematography award of the 15th Asian Film Awards (AFAA) in Busan/Tokyo.

The list of accolades grabbed by the flick goes on with the Best Film Audience Award (Premio Radiónica de la juventud) at the 37th Bogota International Film Festival (BIFF) in Colombia.

Also read:

Director, actress talk on ‘The Wasteland’

Film exclusive report on Iranian feature ‘The Wasteland’

MM/FM