TEHRAN – Iranian movies have won several awards at the 19th Yerevan Golden Apricot International Film Festival.

The event in Armenia kicked off on Sunday by honoring the winners at the Aram Khachatryan concert hall, the organizers said on Monday.

“Subtotals” by Iranian director Mohammadreza Farzad won the Golden Apricot in the Apricot Stone category, which is dedicated to short films of any genre from West Asia.

In this film co-produced by Poland, Germany and Iran, the director intends to say that it makes no real difference in a life lived beyond numbers; the record of your gray hair; the number of houses you have owned or rented; the number of times you have flown in your dreams.

In the Regional Panorama, dedicated to feature and documentary film competition from West Asia, the Iranian drama was awarded the Silver Apricot and FIPRESCI Prize. 

Directed by Mahmud Ghaffari, “The Apple Day” follows a first-grade primary school teacher in a poor suburb of Tehran, who assigns a letter to each student and asks them to bring items starting with the assigned letter related to their fathers’ jobs. 

Mehdi’s father is a fruit seller and he must bring 30 apples (seeb in Farsi) to class on the S Day. However, an unfortunate event immerses the family in a crisis. Saeid, Mehdi’s older brother, has to find a way to overcome this challenge and help Mehdi for “the apple day”.

A jury composed of Iranian director Mohammad-Mehdi Asgarpur, Terry George from Ireland, Orwa Nyrabia from the Netherlands, Florian Hoffmann from Germany and Nora Martirosyan from France selected the winners of the international competition.

“Return to Dust” by Chinese director Li Ruijun won the Golden Apricot, while “Aurora’s Sunrise”, a co-production of Armenia, Germany and Lithuania by Inna Sahakyan, was awarded the Silver Apricot.

“Unrest” by Cyril Schäublin from Switzerland received a special mention in this category.

The Golden Apricot in the Regional Panorama section went to the Austrian film “Sonne” by Kurdwin Ayub, and the Canada-Kurdistan co-production “Rojek” by Zayne Akyol won a special mention.

The Silver Apricot in the Apricot Stone section was given to the Georgian movie “The Dead Will Understand” by Ana Jegnaradze and Marita Tevzadze, and “Night”, a co-production of Qatar, Jordan, Germany and Palestine by Ahmad Saleh received a special mention.

“Korean Delicacy” by Hambardzum Hambardzumyan was picked as best Armenian short.

Yerevan Municipality was the main sponsor of this year’s festival, which was organized with contributions from the RA Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports.

Photo: A scene from “The Apple Day” directed by Mahmud Ghaffari.

MMS/YAW