Taiwanese festival shortlists Iranian documentary 'Pale Blue'

The 2018 edition of the Taiwan International Documentary Festival (TIDF) has shortlisted Iranian documentary 'Pale Blue'.

The 70-minute film by Iranian documentarian Arash Lahouti will compete among the 15 entries shortlisted for the international competition section of the event.

Lahouti’s film is about four war veterans living in a psychiatric hospital in Tehran.

Victims of the 1980s Iran-Iraq war, they have gone through 30 years of treatment and yearn to resume a normal life outside the sanitarium.

'Pale Blue' already won a trophy and a diploma for the best documentary feature in the international section as well as the award for best editing in the national section at the 2016 edition of Iran International Documentary Film Festival, Cinema Vérité,

This year the TIDF is celebrating its 20th anniversary since its foundation in 1998.

Receiving 1,824 entries, this year of the festival experienced a tsunami of submissions.

However, only 15 titles made it to the final lineup. “The films selected widen the spectrum of documentary in terms of their stories and forms,” the event’s website wrote.

The 2018 run of the TIDF is slated for May 4-13.

MG/AG