TEHRAN – Three animations from Iran’s Documentary, Experimental and Animation Film Center (DEAFC) will be competing in the seventh edition of the Turku Animated Film Festival (TAFF) in Finland.

“The Fourth Wall”, “The Hand and the Egg” and “The Wet Mirror” will be showcased in different sections of the festival, which will take place in Turku from August 24 to 28, the DEAFC announced on Tuesday.

The acclaimed movie “The Fourth Wall” directed by Mahbubeh Kalai has been selected to be screened in the international competition.

It is about a stuttering boy who transforms an Iranian kitchen into a fantastic cosmos. The father’s body becomes a refrigerator, the mother’s belly a washing machine whose spin cycle gives birth to a screaming baby. Even birds on tiles and detergents have a surprising life of their own.

The movie has previously received the Mephisto 97.6 Award for the best animated film at DOK Leipzig, Germany’s major international festival for documentary and animated films.

The 31st edition of Animafest Zagreb, a Croatian international festival for animated films, also honored the film with the Zlatko Grgic Award.

“The Hand and the Egg” will be shown in the TAFF Junior category. 

Directed by Fatemeh Gharavi Manjili, the movie follows a cheerful little girl who meets a tiny bird, right before her egg goes missing. She decides to help her find it. Going on a journey together, they find out that a mysterious long hand is stealing all the eggs.

“The Wet Mirror” directed by Amir Hushang Moein was previously screened at the 2021 Animatricks Animation Festival in Helsinki, Finland.

The film tells the story of an old painter who falls in love with a young girl. He has been painting love stories for many years; today it is his turn to be portrayed. 

The animation has been produced based the Sheikh Sanan story from Persian poet Attar Neyshaburi’s “The Conference of the Birds”.

In this story, a celebrated sheikh named Sanan went from Mecca to Greece and fell in love with a Christian maiden. 

At her suggestion, he converted to Christianity. When his disciples heard about this, they came to Greece and prayed to God that Sheikh Sanan would return to the right path. 

Due to the disciples’ prayers, he revived his Muslim faith and returned to his home in the Hijaz. Then, repenting of her deed, the Christian maiden followed him and converted to Islam. 

Sheikh Sanan sensed that she had true faith in Islam and turned back to seek her with his disciples. When she saw Sheikh Sanan, she fainted and this made him cry. Later, when the Christian maiden recovered consciousness, she begged his pardon and died.

Photo: A combination photo shows a poster of three productions from the Documentary, Experimental and Animation Film Center competing in the Turku Animated Film Festival in Finland.

MMS/YAW