Produced by Mohammad-Hossein Qasemi, the film tells the story of a woman from Tehran who marries a man from an Iranian province near the border of Pakistan. Soon afterwards, she discovers that her new brother-in-law is a religious extremist trying to recruit her husband for his bloody cause.
The film won the Crystal Simorgh for best movie during the 37th Fajr Film Festival in 2019.
The film also brought Abyar the Crystal Simorgh for best director. The movie also won Hutan Shakiba the award for best actor, while Elnaz Shakerdoost was crowned best actress.
With a limited number of guests, the closing ceremony of the Resistance festival streamed online on various platforms.
The award for best director went to Ebrahim Hatamikia for “Exodus”.
“Exodus” tells the story of a group of cotton farmers who leave their farms to protest a local official’s unfulfilled promises at the president’s office in the capital.
“23 Individuals” written and directed by Mehdi Jafari received the award for best screenplay. The film is an epic movie about 23 young Iranian volunteers who were captives during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war.
“Abadan 11, 60” by Mehrdad Khoshbakht won the jury special award.
“Abadan 11, 60” is about the people’s fight against Iraqi forces in the southwestern Iranian city of Abadan during the early months of the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war.
The organizers also gave the award for best music video to “Silent Flight” by producer Reyhaneh Mashhadi-Ebrahim.
“The Peculiar Crime of Oddball Mr. Jay” by Bruno Caetano from Portugal received the award for best animation and “On Behalf of Leila” by Mojtaba Espanani won the best short film award.
The award for best telefilm was given to “The Roots” by Effat Sufi.
The best in the Narration of the Pen Section were also honored next.
The award for best telefilm screenplay was given to Maryam Mohammadi for “He Is Not My Father”, and the best adapted screenplay award was given to Niusha Abdollahzadeh for “Hasti”.
The best film screenplay award was given to “Three Quarters of the War” co-written by Davud Jalili and Mohsen Ghazanfari.
The award for best short film screenplay was also handed to Mohsen Ghazanfari for “Dreams”.
In addition, the winners of the Basiji Filmmakers Competition, a section dedicated to the Basiji filmmakers, were honored next.
The best animation award was given to Barzan Rostami for “Balance”, and the best music video award was given to producer Morteza Moqaddas for “Memories”.
Morteza Pajuhan received the best screenplay award for “Trench”, and Zaniar Lotfi received the best short film award for “Nahast”.
The award for most influential film was also given to “A Letter from Damascus” by director Mehdi Ebrahimkhani and producer Abbas Imanian.
The Resistance festival is organized every year to observe the anniversary of the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war, which is called the Sacred Defense in Iran.
This year, the festival was organized in two stages, the first of which took place during the Sacred Defense Week from September 21 to 28, and the second part was from November 21 to 27 to celebrate the anniversary of Basij Day, which fell on November 25.