Chicago festival’s awards go to 2 movies from Iran

Iranian features ‘No Date, No Signature’ and ‘A Man of Integrity’ have won awards at the 53rd edition of the Chicago International Film Festival (CIFF) in the US.

The event organizers announced on Friday that Iranian director Vahid Jalilvand won the Gold Hugo, the festival’s grand prize for ‘No Date, No Signature’ in the new directors slate.

The movie narrates the story of Kaveh Nariman, a doctor who works at the Iranian Legal Medicine Organization. He has to examine the corpse of someone that he used to know in the past.

‘No Date, No Signature’ premiered at the 35th edition of the Fajr Film Festival and received three Crystal Simorgh awards for best director, best actor in a supporting role and best sound.

The movie has so far taken part at a number of international events, including the Vancouver International Film Festival in Canada. More recently, the flick scooped Best Director and Best Actor awards at the Venice Horizons section of the 74th Venice Film Festival, Italy.

Jalilvand’s movie, produced by his brother Ali, stars Hediyeh Tehrani, Amir Aqaei, Saeed Dakh, Alireza Ostadi and Navid Mohammadzadeh.

The CIFF’s prize for the best film script also went to the other Iranian film ‘A Man of Integrity’ (AKA Lerd) by Mohammad Rasoulof.

‘A Man of Integrity’ is a 117-minute fiction about a man who refuses to bribe his way out of trouble caused by powerful economic and political forces.

Reza, having distanced himself from the urban quagmire, leads a simple life along with his wife and sole son, somewhere in a remote village in Northern Iran. He spends his days working in his gold fish farm.

Nearby, a private company with close links to the government and local authorities has taken control of nearly every aspect of the regional life. Its shareholders, accumulating wealth, power and economic rents, have been pushing local farmers and small owners to dilapidate their belongings, farms and estates, to the benefit of the Company’s influential network and its monopoly.

It is under their pressure that many villagers themselves have become local rings of the larger network of corruption.

Reza Akhlaqirad, Soudabeh Beizaee, and Nasim Adabi have starred in the film that has been screened at a number of prestigious global events, including Sydney Film Festival, Midnight Sun Film Festival, New Horizons International Film Festival, the Bogota International Film Festival in Colombia, the Film Festival Gent in Belgium, the Batumi International Art-House Film Festival in Georgia, and the 70th Cannes Film Festival in France where it won the Un Certain Regard award.

The Iranian movies ‘Crimson Gold’ and ‘Fireworks Wednesday’ won the top awards of the CIFF respectively in 2003 and 2006.

Founded in 1964, CIFF is an annual film festival held every fall as the longest-running competitive film festival in North America.

The 53rd edition of the CIFF has been slated for October 12-26, 2017.

MG/MF