TEHRAN -- The 28th Annual Festival of Films from Iran running at the Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago is presenting a number of movies by Iranian directors working within and outside of Iran. 

Mohsen Qarai’s debut feature “Blockage”, “Negar” by Rambod Javan, and Abbas Kiarostami’s experimental work “24 Frames” are among the films selected to go on screen during the festival, which opened on February 3. 

Also included are Ali Asgari’s acclaimed drama “Disappearance” and Mohammad Hamzei’s “Azar”.

The festival will close with the premiere of Chicago-based filmmaker Hossein Khandan’s drama “Waiting for Kiarostami”. The fictional story grew out of the circumstances surrounding a project that Abbas Kiarostami had planned to shoot in China, and serves as an affectionate tribute.

The festival will be running until March 1.

Photo: Amir-Reza Ranjbaran (L) and Sadaf Asgari act in a scene from “Disappearance”.

RM/MMS/YAW