TEHRAN – Iranian drama “Seven and a Half” won an honorable mention at the Indie Meme Film Festival in Austin, Texas, the Organizers announced on Sunday. 

The film written and directed by Navid Mahmudi received the honor in the narrative feature catgory. 16 films from South Asia were also screened at the festival, which was held April 16 to 18 and April 23 to 25.

Produced by Jamshid Mahmudi “Seven and a Half” tells the stories of seven girls Shabaneh, Negar, Nahid, Fereshteh, Nilufar, Rahil and Shekar. Though each has her own individual story, none had the chance of finding love once they lost control of their destiny through either forced marriage or rape.

The Mahmudi brothers were born in Afghanistan but they migrated to Iran with their family during in the 1980s.

They made their debut feature film in 2014 with “A Few Cubic Meters of Love”, which was warmly received by international filmgoers.

Their films “Parting” and “Rona, Azim’s Mother” were Afghanistan’s submissions to the Oscars. 

In the narrative feature section of the Indie Meme Film Festival, “Nasir” by Indian director Arun Karthick won the award for best film. 

The award for best short film went to “Laali” by Abhiroop Basu from India, while “Shut up Sona” by Deepti Gupta from India was named best documentary.

Photo: “Seven and a Half” by Navid Mahmudi.

MAQ/MMS/YAW