TEHRAN – Outsider Pictures, a sales and distribution company releasing films in the U.S. and Canada, has acquired rights to Iranian drama “Pinto” directed by Narges Abyar, Persian news media announced on Tuesday.

Mohammad-Hossein Qasemi, Abyar’s husband, is the producer of the film starring Bahram Radan, Elnaz Shakerdoost and Hutan Shakiba.

“Pinto”, also known as “The Piebald”, had its Iranian premiere during the 39th Fajr Film Festival in Tehran in February, winning the best audience film award.

The film, which is about violence against women, won Gelareh Abbasi the best supporting actress award at the festival.

Iman Omidvari also received the Fajr festival’s best makeup artist for his collaboration in “Pinto”, which also brought Farid Nazer-Fasihi the award for best computerized special effects supervisor.

“I personally believe that women have faced injustices all around the world for many years, and this can be perceived by the unequal number of women’s positions in social and macro-political management,” Abyar has said in her latest interview with Golden Globes.

“Men were the ones who have always occupied managerial positions and have limited women’s authority in economic and cultural arenas. Although I witness this inequality in the world and cannot deny it, it also exists between men and women in my own country due to its culture and traditional infrastructure,” she added.

“Women often need multiple times more effort than men to prove themselves and attract the trust and attention of others, and in the end, they may even fail. My latest film, ‘Pinto’, addresses this issue,” noted Abyar whose most of her films’ leading characters are women.

Abyar is also making a series based on celebrated Iranian female writer Simin Daneshvar’s novel “Savushun”. She is also working in China on a joint project about the Silk Road.

Photo: Elnaz Shakerdoost and Hutan Shakiba act in a scene from “Pinto”.

MMS/YAW