TEHRAN – “Graveyard” by Iranian director Ali Darai has won an award at the 28th IFVA Awards in Hong Kong.

The short film was one of the three films honored in the Asian New Force Category.

The film tells the story of a young mother who has lost her baby due to negligence. Furthermore, since the presence of the father is required to obtain burial permission in Iran, the young mother is striving to find her missing husband and, with the passage of time, she becomes more involved in a plethora of serious issues.

The Incubator for Film and Visual Media in Asia Awards, formerly the Hong Kong Independent Short Film and Video Awards, is organized annually by the Hong Kong Arts Centre.

“Grey Solar Game”, a drama by Indian director Seemonta Halder also was awarded in the Asian New Force Category.

This is a story of three siblings. Changing times change situations, and, along with that, change people, in ways which might not always be for the better. The siblings are plunged into one such time in which living, rather than accepting change, marks catastrophe.

The Chinese drama “I Have No Legs, and I Must Run”, winner of the BFI London Film Festival 2022 Short Film Award, won an award in this section.

Directed by Yue Li, the film is about a major athlete with an injury and a talented new recruit raises the specter of jealousy.

“As I Imagine My Body Moving” by Elysa Wendi from Hong Kong received the gold medal of the festival, the organizers announced last week.

The follows a former dancer encountering a sudden health issue. She unveiled a deeper scar that was concealed inside her for over 20 years. The film explores the notion of kinesthetic separation between the body and its stream of consciousness, sometimes dislocation, or disconnection. Her immobilized body-bearing illnesses somehow is wandering in distorted time and space. The depersonalization is perhaps a detachment one could have learned about one’s body and its autonomy.

The silver medal went to “Lucky Cat” by Yeung Kwong-Chung from Hong Kong.

Fut, a parking attendant who believes in gods and Buddha, meets a mute one day during worship who reveals a secret to him. From that day onwards, Fut gets very lucky and wins a windfall. Meanwhile, massage girl Fei Fei and her friend Mei want to blackmail Fatty, a lustful taxi driver…

Photo: A scene from “Graveyard” by Iranian director Ali Darai.

MMS/YAW