“Botox” named best debut feature at Tirana filmfest

October 2, 2021 - 18:31

TEHRAN – Iranian director Kaveh Mazaheri’s acclaimed movie “Botox” has won the award for best debut feature at the 19th Tirana International Film Festival in Albania. 

The film was screened in Eye on TIFF, a section dedicated to the debut feature film competition.

“Botox”, a co-production between Iran and Germany, 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.

The Tirana festival announced the winners last Thursday as the Mexican drama “Identifying Features” was selected best feature.  

Directed by Fernanda Valadez, the film is about a mother, who travels across Mexico in search of her son whom authorities say died while trying to cross the border into the United States.

Eliza Petkova from Germany was named best director for “A Fish Swimming Upside Down” that features an unusual love triangle where the lovers demand more from each other than they are able to endure.

The award for best screenplay went to “The Exam”, a co-production between Germany and Iraq co-written by Shawkat Amin Korki and Mohamedreza Gohari.

The film follows Rojin, a young Kurdish-Iraqi woman who is about to take the university entrance exam. Rojin’s unhappily married older sister Shilan decides to help her pass at any cost, hoping to give her a more emancipated life. Thus, the sisters inevitably become entangled in a huge network of corruption that connects all parts of society.

“Menarca” by Brazilian director Lillah Halla was picked as best short film. It is about two girls dreaming of ways to protect themselves from violence in a village infested with piranhas.

“Titan” by Valéry Carnoy from Belgium won the award for best live action short film, while the best animation short film award was given to “Heart of Gold” by Simon Filliot from France.

The award for best student film went to the short animation “Fall of the Ibis King” by Mikai Geronimo and Josh O’Caoimh from Ireland.

“A Rifle and a Bag” directed by Cristina Hanes, Arya Rothe and Isabella Rinaldi was selected as best documentary. It is a production from India, Romania, Italy and Qatar.

Photo: “Botox” by Iranian director Kaveh Mazaheri.

MMS/YAW

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