TEHRAN – Director Puran Derakhshandeh and her fellow Iranian film marketing manager Elaheh Tahai have been selected as members of the juries for different categories at the 21st Dhaka International Film Festival in Bangladesh.

Derakhshandeh will join the jury for the Asian Film Competition, which will be led by American filmmaker Jon Jost.

The London-based Bangladeshi director and producer Mostafa Kamal and Armenian filmmaker Arsen Arakelyan are other members of the jury.

Derakhshandeh is a film directing graduate from the Advanced School of Television and Cinema in Tehran. She started her professional career by making documentary films for IRIB channels in Kermanshah and Tehran.

She has directed dozens of films, including “Hush! Girls Don’t Scream”, “Under the Smokey Roof”, “Eternal Children” and “Serial Dream”, which have been awarded at several international festivals.

The 2020 Dhaka International Film Festival held a retrospective of Derakhshandeh.

Tahai has been picked for the Interfaith Jury for the Spiritual Films Section. She is the international business and marketing manager of the Sureh Cinema Organization in Tehran.

The jury also includes Greek director Alexandros Kostopoulos, Bangladeshi counseling psychologist Lipy Gloria Rozario and Polish festival organizer Maciej Rucinski.

Over a dozen of Iranian movies will be screened at the 21st Dhaka International Film Festival, which will take place in the Bangladeshi capital from January 14 to 22.

Six films, including “Forbidden Womanhood” by Maryam Zahirimehr and “The Last Snow” by Amir-Hossein Asgari, will be showcased in the Asian Film Competition.

“No Prior Appointment” by Behruz Shoeibi, “Motherless” by Morteza Fatemi, “The Apple Day” by Mahmud Ghaffari and “Life & Life” by Ali Qavitan will also compete in this category.

“Surviving Fortress” by Iranian director Farshad Fadaian will be competing in the Spiritual Film section.

The Cinema of the World section will also screen eight movies by Iranian filmmakers.

Among the films are “The Opposition” Amir-Abbas Rabiei, “Sniper” by Ali Ghaffari and “Song of the Wind” by Sudabeh Beizai.

This section also features “With the Wind” by Mohammad Tabarsa, “A Childless Village” by Reza Jamali, “Wind of Change” by Abbas Rafei, “The Wind That Shakes the Sugar Canes” Ebrahim Ashrafpur and “Mamma Makhmal” by Amir-Hossein Khalilzadeh.

Photo: A combination photo shows Iranian cineastes Puran Derakhshandeh and Elaheh Tahai.

MMS/YAW