TEHRAN – Ahmad Bahrami has been selected as best director at the 26th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival.

He received his award for his Iranian drama “The Wastetown” on Sunday during the closing ceremony of the festival in Estonia.

Iranian film editor Hayedeh Safiyari was a member of the jury for the international section, which also comprised director Ildikó Enyedi and her Hungarian fellow composer Ádám Balázs, German director Andreas Kleinert and Indian actress and director Bijaya Jena.

Also written by Bahrami, “The Wastetown” tells the story of Bemani, a woman who has spent ten years in jail for killing her husband. Her child was taken away from prison and allegedly given to her husband’s family. 

Temporarily released, she immediately starts looking for her son. Bemani goes to the car demolition facility where Ebi, her brother-in-law, works, but he claims not to know anything about the boy’s fate. She finds out, however, that it was Ebi who sold the child to a rich family. 

Bemani tries to extract more information from the workers at the demolition shop, but they demand an indecent favor in return for the information. As a desperate mother, she is prepared to go to extremes, but not in the way the men are hoping for. 

The Grand Prix of the festival was awarded to the Iceland-Estonia co-production “Driving Mum”, a film filled with black humor directed by Hilmar Oddsson.

The award for best actor award went to Gurban Ismailov for his role in “Cold as Marble”, a co-production between Azerbaijan and France directed by Asif Rustamov.

Antonia Zegers was picked as best actress for her role in the Chile-Argentina production “The Punishment” by Matias Bize.

The best screenplay award was given to the dark comedy “DUCKS – An Urban Legend” co-written by Shahar Rozen and Dudu Busi.

Over 1000 guests and industry delegates and more than 160 journalists attend the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival every year.

Photo: Iranian director Ahmad Baharami in an undated photo.

MMS/YAW