TEHRAN – The Cinéma Vérité festival announced the official lineup on Saturday just one day before the opening of the 16th edition of the major Iranian international festival for documentary films.

Twenty-two documentaries by filmmakers from across the world will be screened in the international competition of the festival, which will be running for five days at Tehran’s Mellat Cineplex.

Announcing the official lineup was delayed on purpose to annul a call from groups of filmmakers to boycott the festival in support of the unrest underway in the country.

The lineup for the national competition was also announced during a press conference on Thursday by the president of the festival, Mohammad Hamidi-Moqaddam who is also the director the Documentary, Experimental and Animation Film Center, the organizer of the festival.

“We didn’t announce the lineup to keep our affairs under control because some people have monopolized the media dictatorship space to exert pressure on filmmakers to get them to do as they want,” Hamidi-Moqaddam said.

Eight movies will be screened in the feature-length documentary section.

Serbian filmmaker Tea Lukac is competing in this category with her latest film, “Roots”.

“Steel Life” by Manuel Bauer from Peru will be screened in this section.

Among the films are also “Apy between Life and Death” by Mehdi Saleki and Firas Razak from Sweden, Russian-Italian co-production “GES-2” by Nastia Korkia, “Vedette” by Claudine Bories and Patrice Chagnard from France, and “Eskape” by French-Cambodian filmmaker Neary Adeline Hay. 

The section for mid-length documentaries will screen six movies, including “This Cannot Be Atoned for” by Hungarian filmmaker Laszlo Halasz.

Polish filmmaker Zofia Kowalewska’s latest documentary “Only the Wind” will compete in this category.

This section also features “Ivan’s Ladder” by Nikolai Bem from Russia, “An Independent Painter” by Diogo Varela Silva from Portugal, “The Long Wave” by Simone Pizzi from Italy and “Joaquin My Cousin” by Luciano Giardino from Argentina.

The international short documentary competition will showcase eight films.

Among the movies are “Yesterday Today Tomorrow” by Orhan Dede from Turkey, “Don’t Get Too Comfortable” by Shaima Al Tamimi from Yemen, “uStopia” by Denisa Parobekova from Slovakia, and “45Th Parallel” by Lawrence Abu Hamdan from Oman.

This category also features “And Then They Burn the Sea” by Majid Al-Remaihi from Qatar, “The Last Photo” by Mehmet Akif Guler from Turkey, “Balcony Concert” by Diana Kadlubowska from Poland and “Muhammad Sato, the Japanese Muslim” by Atsushi Kadowaki from Japan.

The organizers have said that the Iranian movies in the international competition will be announced later.  

Photo: Organizers unveil a poster for the 16th Cinéma Vérité festival.

MMS/YAW