Search:
 
 

26th Fajr International Film Festival (February 2-11, 2008
Moving from Drama to Situation
by Mehrzad Danesh

This year’s edition of Iran’s biggest cinema event, Fajr International Film Festival, was different from its predecessors. One of the most important changes was division of the festival into an international section (the first five days) and the Iranian cinema section (the following six days) because foreign films which take part in the festival usually attract less viewers. Film buffs prefer to watch the Iranian movies because, firstly, the foreign films can be easily bought through unofficial market on CDs and DVDs due to absence of copyright in Iran, and secondly, Iranian theaters are not modern enough, both in terms of audio and visual facilities, to encourage moviegoers watch movies there. Thirdly, foreign films, which are screened in the festival, are usually among less important international productions. Fourthly, since some Iranian films may face subsequent problems on public screening, the festival is a good opportunity for those who follow the situation of the Iranian cinema to watch movies whose public screening may be later banned. Anyway, festival authorities made the decision in order to encourage the Iranian audience to watch foreign films. However, relative emptiness of theaters during the first five days of the festival compared to the following six days proved that the decision had not been effective and simply caused heavy traffic of the Iranian movies in those six days, which caused problems for the festival’s schedule.

The most important films in international competition section of this year’s festival (where 14 films were screened) included: Aleksandra (Aleksandr Sokurov, 2007), Redacted (Brian De Palma, 2007), Mighael Clayton (Tony Gilroy, 2007), Almost Adult (Yousaf Ali Khan, German/Britain, 2007), Children of Glory (Krisztina Gola, Hungary, 2006), and Egg (Semih Kaplanoglu, Turkey/Greece, 2007).

Other foreign sections of the festival included spiritual films competition, Asian cinema competition, festival of festivals, special screenings, Palestinian cinema, as well as perspective of independent cinema of Georgia. The most important films which were screened in those sections included: The Island (Pavel Lungin, Russia, 2006), 1408 (Mikael Hafstrom, 2007), In the Valley of Elah (Paul Haggis, 2007), A Man from London (Bela Tarr, 2007), The Good Shepherd (Robert De Niro, 2006), The Road to Guantanamo (Michael Winterbottom, 2006), Miss Potter (Chris Noonan, 2007), 3:10 to Yuma (James Mangold, 2007), Children of Men (Alfonso Cuaron, 2006), and The Golden Compass (Chris Weitz, 2007)...

SUBSCRIBE

[Page: 62]

Archive
Volume:17 No: 67 & 68 (Autumn 2011 & Winter 2012)
Volume:17 No: 65 & 66 (Spring & Summer 2011)
Volume:16 No: 63 & 64 (Autumn 2010 & Winter 2011)
Volume:16 No: 62 (Summer 2010)
Volume:16 No: 61 (Spring 2010)
Volume:15 No: 60 (Autumn 2009 & Winter 2010)
Volume:15 No: 59 (Summer2009)
Volume:15 No: 58 (Spring 2009)
Volume:14 No: 57 (Autumn 2008 & Winter 2009)
Volume:14 No: 56 (Autumn 2008)
Volume:14 No: 55 (Spring 2008)
Volume:14 No: 54 (Winter 2008)
Volume:13 No: 52-53 (Summer& Autumn 2007)


President & Publisher
Massoud Mehrabi


Editors:

Sohrab Soori


Translators:

Sohrab Soori
Behrouz Tourani
Zohreh Khatibi


Contributors

Shahzad Rahmati
Saeed Ghotbizadeh


Advertisements

Mohammad Mohammadian

Art Director
Babak Kassiri

Ad Designers
Amir Kheirandish
Hossein Kheirandish

Cover Design
Alireza Amakchi

Correspondents
E.Emrani & M. Behraznia (Germany)
Mohammad Haghighat (France)
A. Movahed & M. Amini (Italy)
Robert Richter (Switzerland)
F. Shafaghi (Canada)
B. Pakzad (UAE)
H. Rasti (Japan)

Print Supervisors
Ziba Press
Gol-Naghdh Press
Blue Silver

Subscription & Advertising Sales
Address: 10, Sam St., Hafez Ave., TEHRAN, IRAN
Phone: +98 21 66722444
Fax: +98 21 66718871
info@film-magazine.com

Copyright: Film International
© All rights reserved,
2008, Film International
Quarterly Magazine (ISSN 1021-6510)
Editorial Office: 5th Floor, No. 12
Sam St., Hafez Ave., Tehran 11389, Iran

*

All articles represent views of their
authors and not necessarily
those of the editors


Home | News | Faces | Film Market | Archives | Subscribe | Advertise | Poll | About us | Contact us
© Copyright 2007, Film International Quarterly, All Rights Reserved.