TEHRAN – A lineup of six Iranian films will go on screen during the 62nd DOK Leipzig, the international festival for documentary and animated films running in the German city from October 28 to November 3. 

“Family Relations” by Nasser Zamiri will be screened in the International Competition, the organizers have announced.

The documentary depicts a tragicomic family saga, in which all the members of a large Iranian family are against their father, Haji Baba.

“Exodus” by Bahman Kiarostami, “Khatemeh” by Hadi and Mehdi Zarei and “None of Your Business” by Kamran Heidari are the other Iranian films selected to be screened at the event. 

“Exodus” is about thousands of Afghan migrants who have lined up to leave Iran as the renewed U.S. sanctions have sparked a recession, but first, they must endure interrogations at an immigration center in Tehran.

“Khatemeh” centers on a 14-year-old Afghan girl who was married to a man twice her age. They live in the Iranian city of Shiraz. She has run away to a kind of women’s refuge, because she couldn’t stand it any longer and wants a divorce. 

“None of Your Business” is named after a song that is played in several versions during the film, and was written by poet Ebrahim Monsefi from the southern region of the country. 

“Asho” by Jafar Najafi and “Am I a Wolf?” by Amir-Hushang Moein will be competing in the short competition section.

Asho is a shepherd’s son who not only knows how to deal with goats, but also knows about films. He tries to see at least one a day and dreams of being an actor.

“Am I a Wolf?” is about a group of children who perform the familiar story of the wolf and the yearlings in school as a puppet show. The nanny goat grieving for its yearlings and the angry wolf in its solitude face each other.

Photo: A scene from the documentary “Family Relations” by Nasser Zamiri. 

RM/MMS/YAW