TEHRAN – The organizers announced on Wednesday that the 40th Fajr Film Festival would pay tribute to a number of filmmakers who died from COVID-19.

Khosro Sinai, Akbar Alemi, Kambozia Partovi, Rahim Rahimipur and Fereshteh Taerpur will be commemorated in “Eternal Image”, a series of sessions which will be organized during the festival.

Composer Shahin Farhat will deliver a speech on filmmaker Sinai, who was also a skillful composer and accordion virtuoso, and had composed soundtracks for his own films.

“Bride of Fire”, his feature drama starring Hamid Farrokhnejad, won the Crystal Simorgh for best screenplay at the 18th Fajr International Film Festival.

“The Melody Which an Antique Hears”, “Beyond the Clamor”, “The Coldness of Iron”, “Haj Mosavvar al-Maleki” and “Hossein Yavari” are among his credits.

He was also the director of the documentary “Talking with a Shadow” about Iran’s foremost short story writer, Sadeq Hedayat.

In 2008, Poland decorated Sinai with the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Merit for his documentary “The Lost Requiem” (1970-1983) about the story of the wartime exodus to Iran of thousands of Polish citizens after being released from the Soviet labor camps of Siberia during World War II.

Alemi’s lifetime achievements will be discussed by photographers Shahabeddin Adel and Seifollah Samadian.

Alemi, who got his Ph.D. in cinema in England, was the dean of the Animation Department at Tehran’s Tarbiat Modares University.

As a member of the Academy of Persian Language and Literature, he wrote and translated many books and was active as a jury member for several Iranian and international film and animation festivals. 

Screenwriter Jaber Qasemali has been invited to make a speech about Partovi, who was most famous for his writings rather than films.

He was the co-writer of “Muhammad, the Messenger of God”, director Majid Majidi’s film about the childhood of the Prophet of Islam (S).

His latest movie “Truck” that recounts the story of a Yazidi woman who becomes homeless after the Iraqi ethnic and religious minority is attacked by ISIS forces in the summer of 2014, premiered at the 36th Fajr Film Festival in Tehran in 2018.

He was also directed the acclaimed drama “Border Café”, which was Iran’s submission to the Academy Awards in the Best Foreign Language Films category in 2007.

Actor Hushang Tavakkoli worked with Rahimipur in his war drama “A Blast in Surgery”.

He was also director and writer of over ten movies, including “Doleto Prison”, a drama about a prison located in the Doleto neighborhood of Sardasht, West Azarbaijan, Iran. During the early stages of the Islamic revolution, members of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan committed a series of human rights violations and war crimes against detainees in the prison.

Iranian House of Cinema director Manuchehr Shahsavari, who is also producer Taerpur’s widower, will talk about her children’s films. 

She began her career in 1988 with “Golnar”, written and directed by Kambozia Partovi. “Patal and Small Wishes” by Masud Keramati in 1989 and “Old Men’s School” by Ali Sajjadi-Hosseini are among her films.

The Fajr festival opening next Tuesday is scheduled to be held in person as its president, Masud Naqqashzadeh, tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Mohammad-Mehdi Esmaeili called on Iranian people to attend the festival in a message published by the organizers.

Photo: A poster for the 40th Fajr Film Festival.

MMS/YAW