TEHRAN – “Botox” and “The Doll”, movies by Iranian filmmakers, will be competing in the 19th Tirana International Film Festival.

“Botox”, a co-production between Iran and Germany directed by Kaveh Mazaheri, will be screened in the Eye on TIFF category of the festival, which will take place in the Albanian capital from September 24 to 30.

The movie is about sisters Akram and Azar. Both lie about their brother’s disappearance, telling everyone he fled to Germany. Day after day, the lie becomes bigger and more unmanageable, leading everyone to a dark and mysterious destiny.

“Botox” has been screened at several international film festivals and won awards in some of them.

In November 2020, the film was named the best feature at the 38th Torino Film Festival in Italy. The film co-written by Mazaheri and Sepinud Najian also won the award for best screenplay at the event.

The movie also brought Mazaheri the first-film director award at the 38th Fajr International Film Festival in Tehran in June. 

Italian screenwriter Giovanni Robbiano, Kosovar director Ismet Sijarina, Bulgarian screenwriter Simeon Vensislavov and American journalist Barbara Gasser are members of the Eye on TIFF jury.

“The Doll” by Elaheh Esmaeili is scheduled to be showcased in the Student section, which is the Oscar-qualifying category of the festival.

The documentary is about 14-year-old Asal, whose father consents to her marriage. Through a series of astoundingly frank interviews, the secrets and indiscretions of Asal’s father are slowly revealed and his true intentions come to light.

It was selected as best short documentary at the Canadian documentary festival Hot Docs in Toronto in May.

The Tirana festival is organized every year by the Tirana Film Institute, an Albanian creative industry whose main focus is based on promoting European creative industry products in Albania and cooperating with European organizations in order to share common audio-visual products such as feature and short fictions, animations, documentaries, experimental, video art and student film in various forms.

Photo: “Botox” by Iranian director Kaveh Mazaheri.

MMS/YAW