TEHRAN – Iranian director Hessam Hamidi has been selected as best director by the Rio de Janeiro International Short Film Festival.

He won the award for his drama “Daily Massacre in Tehran”, which is about Fuad, a 12-year-old boy who has come to the capital city from one of the surrounding cities to support his mother’s living expenses in addition to those associated with her illness. 

He is ready and willing to take on any paying job and engage in any business, including slaughtering roosters, sifting through garbage and carrying loads. He encounters problems and difficulties when engaging in each job. “Daily Massacre in Tehran” portrays pieces and layers from the life and problems of a young, small-town boy in the capital city.  

Winners in the Rio de Janeiro festival were announced on Wednesday.

The grand prize of the international competition was awarded to “Trumpets in the Sky”, a cooperative effort by Lebanon, France, Belgium and Occupied Palestinian Territory.

Directed by Rakan Mayasi, the film tells the story of Boushra, a 14-year-old Syrian girl who has fled to Lebanon from the war. She works along with some other Syrian girls in a potato field. One day, she returns from a long day of work in the field only to learn that today her childhood will come to an end. 

“The Star”, a co-production between the U.S. and Israel by Nadav Lapid, won the special jury award.

The Canal Brazil Award was given to “Sideral”, a co-production between Brazil and France directed by Carlos Segundo.

The story of the film is set in Natal, on the Brazilian north coast, where the country is preparing to launch its first manned space rocket into space. A couple lives with their two children near the space center, she is a cleaner and he is a mechanic, but she dreams of other horizons.

Photo: “Daily Massacre in Tehran” by Hessam Hamidi.

MMS/YAW