Fajr film festival to show 'Little Syria' doc

Iranian documentary ‘Kweiris, Little Syria’ is scheduled to be featured at the 35 edition of Fair Film Festival held in Iran.

Morteza Shabanee’s doc that chronicles the story of a military airbase in Syria’s Aleppo will be shown for the first time at the documentary section of FFF.

The director was quoted by the media as saying that Kweiris is an airbase on the outskirts of Aleppo that was placed under siege by Daesh militants for over three years, adding soldiers and students at the airbase defended against Daesh terrorists in a bid to repel terrorists from Kweiris.

Kweiris “was released last year [2015] and we decided to make a doc on things happened to the air base,” Shabanee said, adding that producing the film took 9 months with a crew of 5 people.  

According to the director, the doc runs for 80 mins and hopes are high that the film will be screened in the 'Art and Experience Cinema Group' which was established by Iran's Cinema Organization.

Fajr Festivals are annually held in Iran during the Fajr Decade (literally meaning ten days of dawn) which marks the anniversary of the ten days from the return of Imam Khomeini, founder of the Islamic Republic, to Iran (February 1) until the victory day of the Islamic Revolution (February 11) in 1979.

Established in 1982, Fajr Film Festival is an event that celebrates cultural exchange, displays creative achievements of highly acclaimed cineastes and pays tribute to local and international films.

Since its establishment, Fajr International Film Festival has played a vital role in the development of the Iranian Cinema.

Supervised by Iran’s Ministry of Culture, the festival hosts veteran directors and new filmmakers from Iran and across the world every year.

The 35th Fajr Film Festival will be held in February 2017.

AG/AG