TEHRAN – The International Earth Film Festival, a new Iranian film event that plans to promote environmental issues and sustainable development, announced the lineup for the documentary competition on Thursday.

Nineteen feature and 17 short documentary films will be screened during the first edition of the festival, which will run online in Tehran from May 15 to 21 due to the pandemic.

A highlight of the feature-length documentary films is “All Mama’s Babies” by Rezvan Sarmad.

The documentary covers a story about Sarmad's family. The filmmaker’s parents decide to transform their house into a 9-floor apartment building to help support their children. His mother has planted many fruit trees in the garden, taking great care of them. She realizes that the garden will be destroyed to make way for the new building, and wants to save the trees, which she sees as “her babies.”

The documentary had its world premiere at the Montreal World Film Festival in Canada in 2018. 

“Children of the Night” directed by Moseh Sakha is also among the feature-length documentaries.

The film is about a child soldier, craving heroin, with a Kalashnikovs in hand who has been involved in more than fifty ISIS wars and conflicts. Balanche is among the first child soldiers to tell his stories and observations of one of the most terrifying wars in the world in full detail, along with his four other companions in the documentary.

At the age of twelve, he fled home after an insurgent attack, taking shelter in his country, in Pakistan’s religious schools, and at the age of thirteen was recruited by local liaisons. Terrible violence and the ability to engage in unpredictable behavior in war have prepared them to create dangerous events in the days following the war.

The festival will also screen “Talan”, director Mohammad-Sadeq Dehqani film about underground waters.

Among the short documentaries is “In the Realm of the Spider-tailed Viper”, by Fathollah Amiri about the spider-tailed viper that lives in the western Iranian province of Ilam.

Sakha will also compete in the short documentary category with “Tehran, a City without Birds”. It is about the birds that migrate from the metropolis of Tehran. The destruction of gardens around Tehran, air pollution and the propagation of electromagnetic waves have had a direct impact on the migration of different species of birds from the city of Tehran. Among them are people who are concerned about the migration of birds and try to spread a sense of responsibility among citizens through various social, cultural and artistic activities.  

The International Earth Film Festival has been established by the Green Civilization NGO, Ordibeheshte Oudlajan Art and Cultural Complex and Hashur, a platform providing video on demand (VOD) service.

Photo: A poster for the 1st edition of the International Earth Film Festival.

MMS/YAW