TEHRAN –“Bandar Band” by Iranian filmmaker Manijeh Hekmat received the NETPAC Award at the 6th edition of the Ulju Mountain Film Festival in Ulsan, South Korea, on Sunday.

The film is about some Iranian women singers who are going to enter an unofficial competition in a coffee shop in Tehran.

Pregnant Mahla along with the other members of Bandar Band, her husband, and one of their closest friends, starts her journey to Tehran from a southern province just when they have lost all they had in the flood.

They still keep their hopes alive, however, every road they take leads to a dead-end in a flood-stricken land. They intend to go to Tehran, but they wonder if it is just another turn around a vicious circle.

“The Wall of Shadows” a co-production between Poland and Germany by polish director Eliza Kubarska won the festival’s Grand Prize, while “Climbing”, an animated movie by Kim Hye-mi from Korea received the Special Jury Prize.

As the only mountain film festival in Korea, the Ulju Mountain Film Festival started the NETPAC Award in 2018.

Iranian director Yasser Talebi’s acclaimed documentary “Beloved” won the award in 2019.

Photo: A scene from “Bandar Band” by Iranian director Manijeh Hekmat

ABU/MG