Mahdi Khorramdel*
Eventhough COVID-19 pandemic hurt Iranian Cinema like everywhere else. And in comparison to prior years, fewer movies were made. But people in charge of Iranian cinema insisted on releasing all of them at the Fajr International Film Festival which is the most important cinematic event of Iran. Therefore 39th Fajr Film Festival was a good opportunity to watch the high-quality films which were made in the year leading to February 2021.
Of course, some of the important films of the past year didn’t make their way to the Festival. Some producers preferred not to release their films at the Fajr Film Festival and some of the films were rejected by the people in charge of the Festival, so a total of 16 feature-length films were released this year, which required a substantial amount of time for me to watch. After a few months, I watched some of them in private screenings and now I can portray a complete picture of the fmosphere rely on the handheld cinematography of Najafi, and visual connection between sequences is only possible due to a form that maybe only this style of cinematography can achieve.
even though the atmosphere is mostly loaned from other films, but in general it’s one of few films about the war in Iran that its main characters are a woman and a bunch of kids. the only Iranian film that is superior in this aspect is Bashu, the Little Stranger by Bahram Beyzai. Before this film, I didn’t have high hopes for seeing a good film directed by Mehdi Jafari. But this film showed that his films are worth watching and we can have higher expectations.
*Mr. Khorramdel is Director of Multimedia Office & Culture Editor in TABNAK.com he is a Filmmaker and independent film critic.