TEHRAN – Iranian short dramas “Silence Again” and “To the Order!” will be competing in the Alicante Film Festival.

The festival will take place in Spain’s southeastern port city of Alicante from May 21 to 28.

“To the Order!” directed by Reza Zarringol will be screened in the international competition.

The film is a narrative of the past 40 years of Iraq and the Iraqi people. When you travel to Iraq, what you will see are the ruins left over from the war, the mourners and the soldiers. Like children who play with guns, and what is most annoying is the joy that is evident in their faces. It is as if their uniforms and weapons have been distorted.

“Silence Again” will be competing in the Mediterranean Short Films category.

Directed by Mohammad-Kamal Alavi, the film follows a young woman who lives on a hill far from the city. 

Alone and in silence, she farms and takes her products to the city on an old motorbike. On the way back, a scarecrow catches her eye. The woman returns home but cannot get out of the scarecrow’s mind. She gets up in the middle of the night and walks in the dark. The next morning, the scarecrow is at the woman’s house. 

The woman is no longer alone. She changes the look of the scarecrow and gives it a feminine look. The woman’s relationship with the scarecrow gradually deepens. One day the woman returns home. When she opens the door, the scarecrow falls on her face and injures her. The woman throws the scarecrow out of the house and sheds tears alone and broken. 

The next morning the farmland, roads and houses are empty and silent. In the middle of a paddy field, a woman stands in a scarecrow shirt and hat with her arms outstretched; still and motionless, like a scarecrow.

In 2022, the Alicante Film Festival celebrates its nineteenth edition, in which 66 short films from 22 countries and 8 Spanish-produced feature films will compete.

Photo: “Silence Again” directed by Mohammad-Kamal Alavi. 

MMS/YAW