TEHRAN – The international section of the 33rd edition of Fajr International Film Festival will open at Tehran’s Mellat Cinema Complex today.

A variety of programs and film screening sessions have been arranged during the week-long program, secretary of the festival Alireza Rezadad said in a press conference held last week.

The competition section includes the two categories of main competition and Asian Cinema.

Films from Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Britain, Belgium, Italy, Turkey, India, China and several others will be competing during the event.

However, several Iranian films have been selected to go on screen in the main competition section along with the international movies.

“The Long Goodbye” by Farzad Motamen, “360 Degree” by Saam Qaribian and “Borderless” by Amir-Hossein Asgari are in the main competition section.

“The Buried Secret” (Ali Ghaffari), “Mazar-i-Sharif” (Hassan Barzideh), “Sugar Bowl of Dowry”(Ali Mollaqolipur) and “What’s the Time in Your World” (Safi Yazdanian) are other Iranian movies in the Asian Cinema section.

The films in the main section include “Siddharth” directed by Richie Mehta (Canada and India), “Sharing” by Makoto Shinozaki (Japan), “Golden Kingdom” by Brian Perkins (U.S), “Names Unknown” by Dr. Biju (India), “In Order of Disappearance” by Hans Petter Moland (Norway, Sweden) and “Queen of the Mountains” by Sadyq Sher-Niyaz (Kyrgyzstan).

A lineup of Chinese films will go on screen in the non-competition section during a program entitled the Panorama of Chinese Cinema.

The lineup includes Han Yue’s “A Portrait of Snow Mountain”, Liang Bixin’s “Watchmen”, Fang Gang-Liang’s “I Am a Genius” and Wang Jingguang’s “Never Look Back”.

Moreover, several world cinematic figures will gather in Tehran to hold workshops during the festival.

They include Pete Rive from New Zealand, Jan Miller from Toronto, Polish director Krzysztof Zanussi, Stanley Tong from Hong Kong and Bertrand Levallois from France.


According to the Director of the international section of the festival, Arash Amini, the film market of the festival will be dedicated exclusively to selling Iranian films and no foreign films will be offered there.

The film market will open on April 27 and 90 companies from over 50 countries will be attending the market.

This is the first time the international section has been divided from the national section to highlight the international films and place increased emphasis on this section. The national section of the festival was held in Tehran in February 2015.

RM/YAW
EN