TEHRAN – Iranian director Yasser Talebi’s acclaimed documentary “Beloved” has won the NETPAC Award at the 2019 Ulju Mountain Film Festival, the organizers have announced.

The film received the award for “the compelling resonance of time and space, the balanced interplay between nature and humans, the resistant yet warm protagonist and making the camera absent,” the jury wrote in a statement published by the festival.

“Beloved” is about an 82-year-old woman who prefers a hard, solitary herder’s existence with her cows to a more comfortable life among people.

The documentary has received many awards at several international festivals. 

The most recent honor was a special jury award that was bestowed in August to producer Elaheh Nobakht at the 4th Kranjska Gora International Film Festival in Slovenia.

Also in July during the Sole Luna Doc Film Festival in Palermo, Italy, the film received the best photography award and the High School Students Award in the Journey Section.

It was also honored at the 67th Trento Film Festival in May in Italy. The film received a special mention and a UNESCO honorable mention. 

In addition, “Beloved” has taken first place among the top five mid-length films selected by audience votes at the Hot Docs festival in Canada, Toronto in May.

Under the slogan of “The Road Together” the fourth edition of the mountain-themed film festival ran from September 6 to 10 in Ulsan, South Korea.

As the only mountain film festival in Korea, the Ulju Mountain Film Festival started the NETPAC Award in 2018, and this year eleven films from different countries, including South Korea, China, India and Turkey were competing for the award.

The Grand Prize was given to “The River and the Wall” by Ben Masters from the U.S. 

“Manaslu-Mountain of the Spirit” by Gerald Salmina from Germany received the award for Best Alpinism Film, and “Breath” by Ulises Fierro from Mexico was presented with the award for Best Climbing Film.

Photo: A scene from Iranian director Yasser Talebi’s documentary “Beloved”.

RM/MMS/YAW