Iran-Iraq film ‘Mother, I’m Joseph’ by Mohammadreza Fartousi’ won Best Feature Film Awards and Best Audience Awards of the Dutch festival.
In addition, Iran’s ‘Sa’ad’s Olive Tree,’ directed by Ahmad Zayeri, also received the award for Best Short Film.
‘Mother, I'm Joseph’ is about Joseph who ran away from Saddam’s agents because he didn't want to fight in the Iran-Iraq war. Nobody has any news of him for 21 years.
The 22-minute ‘Sa’ad’s Olive Tree’ tells the story of Sa’ad, a boy with big dreams who loves football. He loses his eyes and friends in a mortar explosion and subsequently locks himself up at home. Then his mother encourages him to go out again, with great effort and creativity.
The film has so far won the awards for Audience Choice, Best Dubbing and Best Kid Actor from the Irvington Film Festival in the US, Best Film Award from the Earl Court International Film Festival in the UK, and Best Screenplay Award from Pakistan’s Asia Peace Festival.
The Best Director Award and the Jury’s Special Mention for Best Film at the 14th Manchester International Short Film Festival in the UK and nomination for Best Dramatic Short Film Award at the 2017 Taipei Children’s Film Festival in Taiwan are also among the film’s achievements.
It has gone on screen at the sixth Delhi International Film Festival in India, the 16th Garden State Film Festival in the US, the ninth Skepto International Film Festival in Italy, and the DYTIATKO International Children’s Media Festival in Ukraine.
The MENA Film Festival presents a contemporary picture of the cultural, political, social and artistic situation in the Middle East and North Africa by filmmakers from these areas.
The festival was held from May 20 to 22, while feature films, documentaries and short films selected by festival director Mohammad Amin were displayed.
More than 3,000 people watched one or more films on the online channel in three days. The audience did not only come from the Netherlands and the MENA area, but from all over the world, from Australia to Canada and from South Africa to South America. A three-person jury, consisting of internationally renowned journalists, scientists and filmmakers, judged the feature films this year: Karim Traïdia, the Algerian-Dutch film director, Elaheh Nobakht, a young Iranian film pioneer, and Hammadi Gueroum, Moroccan writer, film professional and professor.
Source: Iran Daily