TEHRAN – Seven movies by Iranian filmmakers are competing in the 39th Chicago International Children’s Film Festival (CICFF).

Directed by Mahmud Ghaffari, “The Apple Day” is one of the films selected for the Live-Action Feature Film category.

It won a Silver Apricot and FIPRESCI Prize at the Yerevan Golden Apricot International Film Festival in July.

“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”.

“The Boot” by Mohsen Purmohseni-Shakib is competing in the short animated movie section.

It is about a mother bird, which attempts to support her babies amidst a city desolated by war and bombings. She searches among the rubble for a worm to feed the baby birds, but both food and life are a scarcity in this shell-shocked town. The mother bird must therefore get creative in order to save both herself and her children’s lives.

The section also features “The Crow” directed by Ahura Shahbazi.

The animation tells the story of a crow, which is tired of living among the other crows in their small community. It decides to leave and follow an eagle. As the crow follows, he comes across several trials before the eagle accepts him and allows him to travel beside him. Returning from his journey, the crow returns to the other crows and presents his new form, inspiring another crow to begin the journey.

“Adjustment” by Mehrdad Hassani, “Deer” by Hadi Babaifar, “Destiny” by Yaser Talebi and “Dot” by Mohammad Zare’ will be screened in the different categories of the first competitive festival of films for children in the U.S., which will run until November 20.  

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

MMS/YAW