TEHRAN – The Iranian film “Ropewalker Memories” directed by Hamed Rajabi won an award at the 5th Rojava International Film Festival, which was held from November 13 to 20 in Qamishlo, Syria.

Rajabi’s second feature film received Serri Sureya Award for Democracy and Human Rights at the festival, IRNA reported.

“Ropewalker Memories” is about a young man and his father, who share a close living arrangement in the same apartment. Despite his son's objections, the father invites call girls into their home. One day, he brings home a woman who refuses to leave. Both father and son join forces to persuade her to depart. However, when she finally departs of her own accord, her absence becomes unbearable for the two men.

With a deep, different reflection on the ropewalker and the Übermensch in Nietzsche’s “Thus Spoke Zarathustra,” “Ropewalker Memories” predicts how the uprising of the women individuals can teach the people in a country to fight for their rights. This way, it develops in a defamiliarized world, keeping its distance from the conventional dramatic solutions and turning the film into an allegory for a patriarchal world, where some women try to teach others to struggle for freedom.

The film has been previously screened at Pune IFF 2024, Dhaka IFF 2024, Latur IFF 2024, Festival Cinéma(s) d’Iran 2024, Asian Film Festival Barcelona 2024, and Wales IFF 2024.

Hamed Rajabi is an Iranian screenwriter and director. He holds a master's degree in cinema from the University of Tehran. In addition to writing the scripts of “Rainy Seasons” and “Parviz,” he has also directed eight short films. "A minor leap down" is his first experience in making a feature film, which won the FIPRESCI Award from the Panorama section of the 65th Berlin International Film Festival. "Ropewalker memories" is his second experience in making a feature film.

The 5th Rojava International Film Festival, held under the theme “Shared Stories and Free Cinema,” went beyond being merely an artistic gathering, bringing the region's collective memory, culture of resistance, and understanding of free cinema to the audience.

Featuring a total of 81 films, the festival included 21 documentaries, 7 feature-length Kurdish films, 8 Syrian productions, 8 international feature films, and 37 short films. 22 of the screened films were directed by women. This year’s selection prominently highlighted themes such as resistance, the pursuit of freedom, migration, and social struggle. 

Women directors and a woman-centered cinematic language defined the spirit of this year’s festival. According to the festival committee, women have played an active role in every stage of the process, and the festival’s films carried this perspective, highlighting that the Rojava Revolution itself is a women’s revolution.

SS/SAB