Portál Pražana
The eighth annual festival of Iranian films in Prague with English subtitles
From the 15th to the 20th of January, Prague cinemas present a festival, which introduces some of the best current Iranian films. The festival, simply called 'Írán:ci' (Iranians), features films projected with English subtitles. It opens on the 15th of January at 8pm in the Lucerna cinema, with a dark comedy 'Pig', one of the most successful Iranian movies of the year. The director Mani Haghighi, whose movies 'About Elly' and 'Dragon Arrives!' were successful in previous years of the festival, will introduce the film.
Immortal movies
The subtitle of this year's festival is ‘Immortality’. According to the festival’s art director Kaveh Daneshmand, the festival features great and strong movies, which remain in the audience’s memory long after leaving the cinema, and so become ‘immortal’. As in previous years, the festival presents movies that premiered at festivals of Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Locarno, Amsterdam and other prestigious international festivals. For many, this will be their Czech premiere. A number of screenings will be followed by discussions with the filmmakers.
The winner will work in Prague
The films are entered into a competition according to the following categories: Feature films, Documentaries and Short films. The Feature Film competition includes a selection of the most successful films by Iranian directors. In many cases, these are their first or second movies, which were also successful at the most prestigious international festivals. The director of the winning film will win 10 days of postproduction in the leading Prague studio Magic Lab for their next movie.
Controversial filmmakers
For the main competition, very interesting feature films will be presented, such as '3 Faces', directed by Jafar Panahi, whose films are forbidden in Iran. This film was featured in the main competition of the Cannes Festival and won the Best Screenplay Award.
Another interesting title is ‘Pig’, in which a serial killer decides to kill the best Iranian filmmakers, but has no interest in killing a director who is on the Iranian black list. The director is devastated that the killer does not want to murder him. This film was featured in the main competition at Berlinale. Its director, Mani Haghighi, is the most controversial figure in the Iranian film world. Besides Prague, the same festival also takes place in Brno and Bratislava.
Tastes and colours of Iran
The festival also offers a rich additional program. Visitors who come to the Světozor cinema before the end of January can see a unique exhibition of 58 film posters from the golden age of Iranian film, organized in cooperation with ABCollection and the film poster shop Terryho ponožky. Visitors can also purchase authentic Persian snacks prepared by chef Atou Alipoure in the cinema foyer. During the festival, there will be a series of film seminars with special guests. Film students and the public will become better acquainted with the works of selected Iranian filmmakers such as Mohammad-Ali Talebi.
INFORMATION ABOUT THE FESTIVAL
From 15/01/2019 till 20/01/2019
Venues:
Kino Světozor, Vodičkova 41, Prague 1
Kino Lucerna, Vodičkova 36, Prague 1
Bio Oko, Františka Křížka 15, Prague 7
Kino Pilotů, Donská 19, Prague 10
Tickets from CZK 140