TEHRAN – Three Iranian movies have been selected to be screened at the 9th edition of the Smile International Film Festival for Children & Youth – SIFFCY underway in New Delhi, India.

“Asteroid” by Hosseinivand Aalipur, “Why Did the Giraffe’s Flower Fade?” by Kaveh Kanani and “Soo” by Roya Salmi are competing in different sections of the festival, which will run until April 23.

“Asteroid” is competing in the Feature Films category. The film is about Ebrahim, a 12-year-old boy who lives with his mother and five siblings of all ages in a two-room shack in the heart of the desert, far away from the village.

Aside from feeding the children and obtaining a birth certificate for them, the main preoccupation of Ebrahim and his mother is to build a house in the village so they don’t have to walk all the way back and forth all the time.

“When one of my friends was shooting in the desert, I met Ebrahim for the first time,” Aalipur said in a statement for his film. 

“In a village, where its inhabitants had not even registered for their National IDs, there was a little boy who did not know anything about life but working,” he added.

“I came back to Tehran but never managed to stop thinking of his story. So I began writing a script about a boy like Ebrahim… And when finished, I realized how little children and little princes are different from each other,” he explained.

“Why Did the Giraffe’s Flower Fade?” has been picked to be screened in the Shorts and Docs section.

In this animated film, Giraffe loves flowers. She keeps her flower in a jar to save it from wind and rain, but it withers, and she is very sad and doesn’t know why it happened.

“Soo” is competing in the Films by Children category.

Iranian English teacher Elham Shirvani, who is a member of CIFEJ – International Center of Films for Children and Young People, is a member of the jury, which will select the winner of the Next Gen Award. 

Over 150 films from different genres, including feature films, short films, documentaries and animations, made by both professionals and children have been selected to be screened in various sections of the festival.

Photo: A scene from “Asteroid” by Hosseinivand Aalipu.

MMS/YAW