Tehran Times, Iran
Tuesday
Apricot Tree festival picks films from Iran
TEHRAN – Three Iranian movies will be competing in the Apricot Tree International Documentary Film Festival in Armenia, the organizers have announced.
"Meta Marathon" by Saeid Keshavarz, "Meeting" by Reza Majlesi and "The Rock" by Hamid Jafari will be screened in two different sections of the festival, which will take place in Yerevan and the beautiful village of Ujan from September 15 to 21.
"Meta Marathon" will be competing in the feature section. The film narrates the story of Qodratolloh Bayat, a young working man living in his modest village, boasting that he can break the world and Olympic marathon record. He joins a marathon competition held in the town and prepares a team to film his victory.
"Meeting" and "The Rock" will be competing in the short film category.
"Meeting" depicts the difficult everyday life of an elderly rural woman, full of hard work, and the traditions of her village on the threshold of the holy month of Ramadan.
"The Rock" is about a woman in southern Iran who goes to the mountain near her village every day, breaks up rocks, puts the stones on a truck and makes a living from it for her family.
About 20 documentaries from Germany, France, Norway, Ukraine and several other countries will be competing in the festival.
Iranian filmmaker Shahram Badakhshanmehr is a member of the festival jury this year.
His docudrama "Slowly" won the festival's grand prix in the feature-length competition in 2017.
He will be judging the films along with German film director Wieland Speck and Armenian historian-anthropologist Hranush Kharatyan.
Photo: A scene from "Meta Marathon" by Saeid Keshavarz