Iranian ‘Bench Cinema’ opens Barcelona film festival

Iranian ‘Bench Cinema’ has opened the 5th edition of the Barcelona Asian Film Festival in Spain.

The festival screened ‘Bench Cinema’ by Mohammad Rahmanian as the opening film of the event on November 2nd, 2017, in Caixaforum.

Starring Houman Barqnavard, Hossein Erfani and Ashkan Khatibi, the 117-minute movie is a comedy drama.

‘Bench Cinema’ is about a film lover who rents out illegal videotapes and gets arrested. Whilst in prison he meets a voice actor, whom gives him an address to the Chamber of Treasure that holds a great collection of classic films.

He spends months after release, watching the films and memorizes all the lines. He then travels around to perform the films as a one man show on a bench. Gradually he forms a theatre group called Cinema Bench, with a street violinist, an insomniac visual artist, and a former actress. As they try to keep integrity, the film follows their journey as struggling artists.

‘Bench Cinema’ has also been selected to go on screen at the official section of the Spanish festival.

Titles from Iran, Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Nepal, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, and Thailand took part the festival.

This edition of the festival was organized in seven sections: Official Section, Panorama Section, Netpac Section, Discoveries Section, Special Section, Retrospective Section, and a short film program.

The 5th edition of the Barcelona Asian Film Festival has been slated for November 2-12, 2017.

MG/MMF