Kerala Int’l filmfest screens 2 Iranian films

The 22nd edition of the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) in India has screened Iranian movies ‘Ava’ and ‘Dogs and Fools’.

The Indian festival displayed both Iranian flicks on the first day in the World Cinema section.

The 84-minute ‘Dogs and Fools’ directed by Ali-Mohammad Qasemi, stars Mahmoud Nazaralian, Peyman Moqaddami, Asieh Bakhshizad and Nathalie Alonso-Casale.

Qasemi’s film is about a number of people in the mountainous heights and forests of northern Iran, where a road passes by coffee places. A young couple who have just got engaged gets involved with some problems in a shocking situation.

The girl tries to bring hers and her mother’s life back to normal, but the innuendos and the way people look at them is too difficult to take for them. After a year, the young man who was disappeared comes back, devastated and failed.

The 102-minute ‘Ava’ directed by Sadaf Foroughi stars Mahour Jabbari, Bahar Nouhian, Vahid Aqapour, Shayesteh Sajjadi, Sarah Alimoradi, Houman Hoursan, and Mona Ghiasi.

Ava’s life is dictated by pressure to conform to the expectations of her parents, her school, and her friends. She begins to rebel against the very foundations of the society when she learns that her parents were once flagrant rule breakers themselves.

Foroughi’s film, a coproduction of Iran, Canada and Qatar, won the FIPRESCI Discovery Prize and Honourable Mention for Best Canadian First Feature Film at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2017.

The IFFK, acknowledged as one of the leading cultural events in India, is an annual event held in Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum).

Started in 1996, the festival is hosted in November/December every year by the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy on behalf of Department of Cultural Affairs, Government of Kerala.

The 22nd edition of the IFFK kicked off on December 8, 2017, and will last for a week.

MG/MF