Cinema iFilm highlights mentally challenged in ‘The Painting Pool’

Cinema iFilm has highlighted Shahab Hosseini and Negar Javaheriyan in ‘The Painting Pool’ by Maziar Miri.

It narrates the story of a mentally challenged couple who is in love with each other and has a pre-teen.

Such mentally challenged people are not the ones who can be featured more often on the silver screen given that the way they think and behave may not be in congruent with the cinema business where words and actions play a pivotal role.

Even in Hollywood, movies centering on mentally challenged people are scarce as there is little knowledge about how such individuals think due to being mostly introverted.

Considering the complexity of this issue, the male and female leads of the flick, Shahab Hosseini and Negar Javaheriyan, must have had a hard time playing this couple. The director has also taken on a touch challenge in his career, helming this movie.

Mentally-challenged people are under-represented in media and cinema around the globe. Thus, having the likes of ‘The Painting Pool’ hailing from Iranian cinema clearly shows the sophistication of such medium in Iran.

Regarding the awards gained by the flick, one accolade that is the Fajr audience choice award reveals a subtle point about Iranian cinema audiences.

On an international scale, the title won the APSA UNESCO award at Asia Pacific Screen Awards in Australia.

Such awards highlight the fact that cinema audiences and experts are sophisticated as they selected ‘The Painting Pool’ as their top pick.

MG/AG