Karlovy Vary festival spotlighting Iranian filmmakers

The 57th edition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF) in the Czech Republic is celebrating the new generation of independent Iranian filmmakers in a special section titled “Another Birth. Iranian Cinema, Here and Now”.

The Czech festival is offering nine films as an insightful testimony of the burning creativity of Iran’s artists in the face of the challenging reality.

The selection is comprising melancholic dramas, comedies, war movies, sci-fi films and movies about love that have been made over the past four years.

“This cinema should not be read with the regular tools we use to decode most films,” said the retrospective’s curator Lorenzo Esposito.

“This cinema compels us to reinvent our tools, to reinvent how we see and interpret film, in order to engage with the intentions of these filmmakers,” he added.

The directorial debut ‘The Skin’ by twin brothers Bahram and Bahman Ark is a highlight of the lineup.

In the film, a young man named Araz seeks to marry his true love, but his mother, a sorceress, has cast a spell to keep her son with her. The closer he gets to his beloved, the weaker his mother becomes. He seeks to break the spell with the help of an itinerant musician and a mysterious recluse with access to the spirit world.  

Mohammadreza Shayannejad’s debut film ‘Trip to the Moon’ is also on the screen.

Zoya’s voice is placed in a bottle. Something both ethereal and mechanical is shimmering in the air. Farid plans to construct a device, which would enable him to record this invisible movement. Reality breaks up into tiny fragments; voices from the past and future start to materialize. Zoya sets off on a trip to the Moon. 

The selection also features ‘Black and White River’ by Farzin Mohammadi, ‘Creation between Two Surfaces’ by Hossein Rajabian, ‘Dream’s Gate’ by Negin Ahmadi, ‘K9’ by Vahid Vakilifar, ‘Locust’ by Faezeh Azizkhani, ‘No End’ by Nader Saeevar and ‘Zapata’ by Danesh Eghbashavi.

In addition, Iranian director Karim Lakzadeh’s movie ‘Dark Matter’ is featured at the Proxima Competition.

The 57th KVIFF has been slated for June 30-July 8 in the Czech Republic.

MG/AG