TEHRAN – The Iranian movies “A Childless Village” and “The Wastetown” will be competing in the 26th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival.

Directed by Reza Jamali, “A Childless Village” will be screened in the Critics’ Picks Competition of the festival, which will take place from November 11 to 27 in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia.

As suggested by the title, the funny film-in-film comedy is about a small rural village, where no children have been born for a while and all the men assume that it is the fault of the women. 

Two decades ago, old filmmaker Kazem came to this remote rural village to make a documentary about the barrenness of the village women. But the village women wanted to protect their dignity, so they stole and burnt the footage.

By today, the villagers have found out that the men are sterile and there is nothing wrong with the women. With the help of his assistant, Kazem tries to record some interviews with the infertile men to unfold the truth in a new movie, but this turns out in many ways to be a Mission: Impossible.

“The Wastetown” will be showcased in the official competition.
 
Written and directed by Ahmad Bahrami, the film tells the story of Bemani, a woman who has spent ten years in jail for killing her husband. Her child was taken away from prison and allegedly given to her husband’s family. 

Temporarily released, she immediately starts looking for her son. Bemani goes to the car demolition facility where Ebi, her brother-in-law, works, but he claims not to know anything about the boy’s fate. She finds out, however, that it was Ebi who sold the child to a rich family. 

Bemani tries to extract more information from the workers at the demolition shop, but they demand an indecent favor in return for the information. As a desperate mother, she is prepared to go to the extremes, but not in the way the men are hoping for.

The Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival hosts more than 1000 guests and industry delegates and over 160 journalists every year.

Photo: “A Childless Village” directed by Reza Jamali.

MMS/YAW