TEHRAN – Nine Iranian movies will compete in the 12th edition of the Tracce Cinematografiche Film Fest, which will take place from July 4 to 9 in Rome, Italy.

A highlight of the Iranian lineup is the award-winning short drama “Katvoman”, written and directed by Hadi Sheibani.

The film shows a mom and son playing dressed up as Batman and Catwoman before dad returns for dinner. Through the play, the child discovers a difficult truth about his parents.

The film won the award for best fiction at the Festival International du Film Amateur de Kelibia – FIFAK in Tunisia and the audience award for best short fiction at the 10th Amnesty International France’s Cinema for Human Rights Festival.

Among the films is also the animated drama “The Melody of Loneliness”.

Directed by Samira Azimian, the movie tells the story of a Kurdish girl who has to weave carpets for her foreman in order to make a living. To endure loneliness, she creates her dreams and depicts them in the form of carpet motifs. Finally, after weaving several carpets, she faces the truth and accepts it, but weaving dreams is the only reason for her to live, though all her carpets will be given to others. The girl weaves and weaves and years go by. She, who has now reached old age, dies on the last carpet she has woven for herself, and her soul is freed from the captivity of her body.

Mohammad-Kamal Alavi’s short drama “Silence Again” will also compete in the festival.

The film is about a young woman who lives on a hill far from the city, alone and in silence. She farms and takes her produce to the city on an old motorbike. On the way back, a scarecrow catches her eye. The woman returns home but she cannot get the scarecrow out of her mind. 

She gets up in the middle of the night and walks in the dark. The next morning, the scarecrow is at the woman’s house. The woman is no longer alone. She changes the look of the scarecrow and gives it a feminine look. The woman’s relationship with the scarecrow gradually deepens. One day, the woman returns home, and when she opens the door, the scarecrow falls on her face and injures her. The woman throws the scarecrow out of the house and sheds tears, alone and heartbroken. The next morning the farmland, roads and houses are empty and silent. In the middle of a field, a woman stands in a scarecrow shirt and hat with her arms outstretched; still and motionless, like a scarecrow.

The lineup also includes “A Butterfly Is Knocking on Windo” by Mohammad Hassani, “Daybreak” by Yaser Yari and several other films.

Photo: A scene from “Silence Again” by Mohammad-Kamal Alavi.

MMS/YAW