TEHRAN – “Careless Crime”, the latest production by Iranian director Shahram Mokri, has won the best original screenplay at the 77th Venice Film Festival.

The film was an entry to the Orizzonti section of the festival, which is dedicated to films that represent the latest aesthetic and expressive trends in international cinema.

“Careless Crime” goes back to forty years ago, during the uprising to overthrow the Shah’s regime in Iran, when protestors set fire to movie theaters as a way of showing opposition to Western culture. Many cinemas were burned down. In one tragic case, a theater was set on fire with four hundred people inside, most of whom were burned alive. Forty years have passed and, in contemporary Iran, four individuals also decide to burn down a cinema. Their intended target is a theater showing a film about an unearthed, unexploded missile.

Mokri delivered a speech on Iranian cinema in the program “European Union for the Future of World Cinema” held at the Spazio Incontri on the margins of the festival last week. 

He said how the U.S. sanctions on Iran have put a big obstacle in the way of countries and companies eager to cooperate with Iran in the film industry.

Mokri called Iran a land of rich literature full of myths and legends, enjoying a four-season climate, with cinema experts and a 110-year-long history in filmmaking.

Photo: Iranian director Shahram Mokri holds the best original screenplay award he won for his “Careless Crime at the 77th Venice Film Festival.

RM/MMS/YAW