TEHRAN – The Montecatini International Short Film Festival has announced its plan to review Iran’s contemporary short cinema.

Nineteen films will be screened in a special program initiated by the organizers of the festival’s 2022 edition opening on Wednesday in Montecatini, Italy.

One of the highlights of the lineup is “Water, Wind, Dust, Bread”, the winner of a special mention from the 2021 IDFA jury.

Director Mehdi Zamanpur Kiasari brings a poetic story about the life of Abolfazl, an 11-year-old boy who is missing both hands. Despite his disability, Abolfazl lives a full life with his family and friend Setayesh in a palm orchard near the Afghan-Iranian border, where foreign visitors often head for eco-tourism. He and his eight-year-old friend, Setayesh, belong to a group of stateless children living in the remote border area of Iran, and having no birth certificate poses a major disadvantage for their future.

“The Sprayer”, an acclaimed animated movie Farnush Abedi, is also among the films.

It is about an area occupied by the sprayer’s army. No one has the right to grow any kind of plant either in public or private. So many of the people and soldiers do not even know how a plant grows or what one looks like, until one day one of the soldiers finds a seed buried deep down in the dust, and his curiosity is just the beginning of something extraordinary, something big, something revolutionary.

The lineup also included “Identibye”, the best foreign-language film at the 2021 Route 66 Film Festival in Springfield in the U.S. state of Illinois.  

In this film directed and written by Sajjad Shahhatami, the protagonist of the story faces a dilemma of choosing between sense and sensibility regarding one’s innermost feelings. He has been judged from the very beginning by those closest to him. The fear of these never-ending judgments fills him with doubt and he has to work against the clock to achieve his goal as he knows that one’s true identity is what matters most to them.

“Mask” directed by Nava Rezvani will also be screened. In this drama, a young woman unwillingly undergoes cosmetic surgery on her face only for the sake of her boyfriend, but the man is not happy with the final result. This leads the girl through a process of rediscovery of herself.

The lineup also features “Exchange” by Barzan Rostami, “C-Section” by Mehrshad Kheradmandi, “Hulu” by Mehdi Hosseinkhani, “Mahakan” by Hesam Hosseini and Abbas Hosseinzadeh, “Childfree” by Sara Bahramjahan, “A Winner” by Mehdi Mahai and several other films. 

“Maturity” by Iranian director Nazanin Qanbari-Mohammadi will be competing in the official section of the festival, which will run until November 6.

Photo: “The Sprayer” by Farnush Abedi. 

MMS/YAW