TEHRAN – The Iranian Film Festival Zurich has announced its official lineup featuring movies from Iran’s independent cinema. 

The 8th edition of the festival will take place in Zurich, Switzerland from May 26 to June 1.

Thirteen feature films have been chosen to be screened in the official competition of the event.

The festival is scheduled to pay tribute to Dariush Mehrjui, a pioneer of Iran’s New Wave cinema, by a review of his 1969 drama “The Cow” on the opening day.

The film follows Masht Hassan, who owns the only cow in a remote and desolate village. While he is away, his cow, whom he treats as his own child, dies. Knowing the relationship between Masht Hassan and his cow, the villagers hastily dispose of the corpse, and when Masht Hassan returns, they tell him that his cow ran away. Devastated by the news, Masht Hassan starts to spend all his time in the barn eating hay and slowly begins to believe that he has become the cow.

The lineup also features director Mehdi Jafari’s acclaimed drama “Yadoo”. 

The film follows a teenage boy named Yadoo living with his family and people under siege in the southwestern Iranian city of Abadan in the early days of the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war. The family is finally forced to migrate.

“No Choice” directed by Reza Dormishian is another highlight of the official competition.

The film tells the story of three women who clash when a determined lawyer takes on the case of a 16-year-old homeless girl against a doctor. The girl repeatedly works as a surrogate mother for money. A human rights attorney tries to rescue her, but inevitably faces difficulties.

The official competition also includes “The Sun Of That Moon” by Setareh Eskandari, “The Milky Day” by Mahmud Nuri, “World, Northern Hemisphere” by Hossein Tehrani, “At the End of Evin” by Mehdi Torabbeigi, “The Rain Falls where it Will” by Majid Barzegar, “The Majority” by Mohsen Qarai, “Bone Marrow” by Hamidreza Qorbani, “District Terminal” by Bardia Yadegari, “TiTi” by Ida Panahandeh and “Une Histoire Provisoire” by Romed Wyder.

Nine movies, including “Barter” by Emad Arad and Ziba Karamali and “Cloudy Man” by Shahin Jalali, have also been selected to be screened in the short competition category.  

“Invisible Lines” by Mehdi Rakhshani, “Tonight’s Homework” by Ashkan Nejati and Mehran Nematollahi, and three other films will be showcased in the documentary films section.

Photo: “Yadoo” directed by Mehdi Jafari. 

MMS/YAW