Iranian films win awards at Venice Film Festival
“The Wasteland” directed by Ahmad Bahrami won the Horizons Award for Best Film, while Ruhollah Zamani, the star of film “Sun Children”, won the Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best Young Actor at the 77th Venice International Film Festival.
“Sun Children” tells a story of 12-year-old Ali and his three friends. Together, they work hard to survive and support their families, doing small jobs at a garage and committing petty crimes to make fast money. In a turn of events that seems miraculous, Ali is entrusted to find a hidden “treasure” underground. He recruits his gang, but first, to gain access to the tunnel, the children must enroll at the Sun School, a charitable institution that tries to educate street kids and child laborers, close to where the treasure is located.
Two more works namely “Silent Plain” directed by Ahmad Bahrami and “Careless Crime” by Shahram Mokri were also other Iranian films in the Horizons section of the 77th Venice Film Festival.
“The Careless Crime” film received the Best Original Screenplay Award handed out by the Independent Federation of Film Critics at the event.
The 77th Venice International Film Festival was held in Italy on September 2-12 against the backdrop of the coronavirus pandemic. The Venice Film Festival is the world’s oldest film festival to screen the best new films since 1934. The festival is held annually on the island of the Lido in the Venice Lagoon.
