TEHRAN-A total of seven Iranian productions will participate in the 3rd Red Sea International Film Festival in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, from November 30 to December 9.

Three feature films, two short films, one animation and one series are the works from Iran included in the festival lineup, ISNA reported.

“Roxana” written and directed by Parviz Shahbazi will represent Iran in the main competition section. It is the story of a young gambler who finds an unexpected romance with a talented girl artist. Determined to turn his life around, he strives to become a better, more useful person.

Mahsa Akbarabadi, Yasna Mirtahmasb, Maedeh Tahmasbi, Behrang Alavi, Rambod Motalebi, Niloofar Kookhani, and Shahram Abdoli are in the cast.

In its world premiere at the 36th Tokyo International Film Festival in October, the film won the Best Actor Award for Yasna Mirtahmasb.

Competing in the Shorts Competition section, two short flicks from Iran will vie for the award, including “Suitcase” by Saman Hosseinpour and Ako Zand-Karimi and “Titanic, Suitable Version for Iranian Families” by Farnoosh Samadi.

“Suitcase” is about a Kurdish refugee who lives in his suitcase far from his own homeland. In it he carries memories of his family. When someone steals the suitcase in the tumult of the foreign city center, he loses his home a second time.

The 15-minute flick won the best script award at the 11th Parma International Music Film Festival in Italy and the Audience Award at Kobani International Film Festival in Germany in September.

Meysam Damanzeh, Rezvan Khodami, Elena Sahami and Ava Moslemkhani are in the cast of the short work.

Samadi’s short film depicts a complex and combative exchange at an Iranian broadcaster over a certain Hollywood blockbuster, which disguises deeper ruptures.

The cast includes Sadaf Asgari, Hamed Advay, Mohammad Heidari, Amirreza Rajbaran, Melika Pazouki, Mojtaba Batvandi, Mohammad Asna, and Behnaz Jafari.

“The Last Snow” by Amirhossein Asgari will be screened at the Festival Favorites section. It is about Yousef, a successful and committed veterinarian who lives in a village. When his daughter’s friend, Khorshid, disappears, all the villagers look for her sympathetically until a secret is revealed.

Premiered at the 40th Fajr Film Festival, it earned 9 nominations, winning 4 awards. Amin Hayai, Ladan Mostofi, Majid Salehi, Nooshin Masoudian, Mohammad Sadegh Malek, and Mehdi Mehraban are in the cast among others.

The animated movie “3 Little Kungpoo Goats” by Kianoush and Farzad Dalvand and feature film “Captain” by Mohammad Hamzei are the Iranian works in the Families and Children section of the Red Sea Festival.

A joint production of Iran and China, the animation shows a jungle where there is a fragile ceasefire between predators and preys. One day the wolf who is exhausted by vegetarian recipes decided to find a legal detour to hunt some little goats without breaking the truce. But he doesn't know that these little goats are the students of the Martial School that trains self-defense to little animals.

“Captain” revolves around an 11-year-old boy named Isa who is absolutely convinced that he will soon be playing for the Iran national football team. Nothing can shake his confidence. Not even the fact that he lives in the cancer section of a hospital and gets weaker from treatment to treatment.

Pejman Bazeghi, Pante’a Panahiha, Amirhossein Bayat, Bahar Nouhian, Arghavan Shabani, Shayan Deramipour, and Parham Gholamlou play in the 90-minute film deals with the themes of hope and forgiveness.

The series “Actor” written and directed by Nima Javidi is also present in the Series section of the event.

Blending drama, mystery and black comedy, the series is a dazzling story about two impecunious actors Ali and Morteza who turn the world into their scene. The duo put their acting talents to original use, hopping from a staged marriage proposal to a graduation ceremony, via an array of receptions and functions. But things don’t always go as planned as they find themselves in increasingly daring and dangerous situations, while simultaneously trying to deal with the problems in their own lives.

The cast includes Navid Mohammadzadeh, Ahmad Mehranfar, Hasti Mahdavifar, Hanieh Tavassoli, Hooman Barghnavard, Gelareh Abbasi, Arash Falahatpisheh, Roya Javidnia, Mehraveh Sharifinia, and Farideh Sepahmansour among others.

The series has so far received an honorable mention from Seriencamp Festival in Germany earlier this year in June and the grand prize of Series Mania Festival in France in March. It also won the best screenwriter award at the 18th Seoul International Drama Awards in South Korea in September.

Launched in 2019, the Red Sea International Film Festival mainly focuses on new storytelling trends, as well as emerging talents from Saudi Arabia, the Arab world, the West Asia, and the rest of the Global South. 

SS/SAB