Press Release
17 DEC 2015
The Festival of Iranian Films announces its program: the first coproduction of Iran and the Czech Republic as well as a provocative film
from Cannes
The 5th edition of the Festival of Iranian Films will take place 13 to 17
January 2016 at Světozor, Bio Oko and, for the first time, also at Lucerna
in Prague. Then the festival will move to Scala in Brno, where it will be
held between 19 and 20 January. And finally, between 28 and 30 January,
it will expand to Film Europe in Bratislava, Slovakia for the first year.
The festival will open with What’s the Time in Your World, the most
delicate meditation on love and memory, directed by Safi Yazdian, who
will be present to introduce the film. The film features Iranian stars Leila
Hatami and Ali Mosaffa, both an on-screen and off-screen couple. The
feature film competition will offer Jafar Panahi’s Taxi, a multi-layered
mosaic of life in today’s Iran, the winner of the Golden Bear for the best
film in Berlinale 2015. Another film that should not escape your attention,
A Very Ordinary Citizen, is the first co-production of Iran and the Czech
Republic directed by Majid Barzegar, who will be present on 16 January at
the Czech premiere in Lucerna. The film will then go to Czech cinemas.
And the closing film of the festival, Manuscripts Don’t Burn, the winner of
Cannes FIPRESCI Award and the most provocative film to emerge from
Iranian cinematography, explores the shocking subject of Iranian secret
service.
The documentary section will, among other films, include Dingomaro, a
lively and pulsating portrayal of one of the most successful musicians from
the south Iranian province of Hormozgan.
The Night of Afghan Films will return to Bio Oko on 15 January, offering a
singular opportunity to experience two of Afghanistan’s best films made in
the last four years. The Patience Stone by Atiq Rahimi and A Few Cubic
Meters of Love by Jamshid Mahmoudi were both picked for the Academy
Awards and received numerous international awards, drawing worldwide
attention to the flourishing post-Taliban cinema of Afghanistan. Both films
will be introduced by their directors. This year’s festival will welcome the
star guest Siddiq Barmak, an Afghani director and Golden Globe winner
for the best foreign film Osama, who will be a member of the IFF jury.
This year’s festival poster was designed by Cassra Abedini, an awardwinning artist, one of the most interesting contemporary Iranian graphic
designers whose work characterizes the combination of modern and
traditional calligraphy. Abedini’s posters will be displayed at Světozor from
9 to 31 January. Between 4 and 31 January, Prague’s Langhans Gallery –
People in Need Centre will host an exhibition of the Iranian painter Elham
Parsian recommended to all art lovers. On 14 January, everybody is
invited to Royal for a unique concert given by the popular Shanbehzadeh
Ensemble that, among other venues, performed at Louvre in Paris. The
festival will also feature A Moment of Silence, a theatre performance
exploring the aftermath of the 1979 Iranian Islamic Revolution. The
performance in English with Czech subtitles will be given in Disk Theatre
on 15 January.
For
complete
IFF
program and tickets for side events go to:
www.iranianfilmfestival.cz . All screenings will have Czech and English
subtitles.
Contacts
Official web pages of the festival: http://iranianfilmfestival.cz
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IranianFilmFestival
Twitter: https://twitter.com/IranianFF
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