In an Iranian juvenile detention center, a group of adolescent girls are serving time for having murdered their father, husband or another male family member. Filmmaker Mehrdad Oskui managed to build up a remarkable relationship with these inmates, whose frank conversations and playful interactions he observes, and who gradually open up about the consequences of, and sometimes the reasons for, their terrible act. Mehrdad occasionally leaves them alone with the camera, allowing it to become a means for them to address both their victims and their accomplices, three of the girls having killed their fathers with the help of their mothers. The mothers await execution elsewhere.
“Sunless Shadows” has been screened in numerous renowned intentional events and won awards in some of them. One of the latest screenings was at the 60th Krakow Film Festival in Poland where it received a Silver Horn for Oskui.
Oskui also won the best director award at The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) for his documentary in November 2019.
French filmmaker Anne Georget, DocPoint – Helsinki Documentary Film Festival director Tapio Riihimaki and Czech film expert Igor Blazevic were the members of the CinéDOC international jury.
“The Earth Is Blue as an Orange”, a co-production between Lithuania and Ukraine directed by Iryna Tsilyk, won the special jury mention.
The Georgian documentary “Pavilion” co-directed by Ana Jegnaradze and Marita Tevzadze was named best film in the CinéDOC Caucasus competition.
The special jury award in this section went to “Dead Souls’ Vacation” by Georgian director Keko Chelidze, while “Labyrinth” directed by Oktay Namazov won a special mention. This film is a co-production from Hungary, Portugal, Belgium and Azerbaijan.
The 8th CinéDOC-Tbilisi, which started on August 30, is organized by the Noosfera Foundation every year.
Source:tehran Times