China’s top film festival showered its highest three honors on the Iranian film 'Castle of Dreams,' during an award ceremony on Sunday night.
The feature is about a 42-year-old man, Jalal, who murders a family in a car crash. The murder, however, is considered as involuntary manslaughter in court. The drama collected a trio of prizes, including the Golden Goblet prize for best film, best director prize for Reza Mirkarimi, and the best actor award for Hamed Behdad, which he shared with Chang Feng for 'The Return' (China).
While receiving the award, Mirkarimi highlighted the need for increasing cooperation among Asian countries. Actor Hamed Behdad, in a video streaming during the award ceremony, dedicated his prize to one of the most visionary figures in international cinema, late Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami, whose birthday was on June 22.
'Castle of Dreams' won the Golden Goblet prize in competition with 15 other titles from Germany, Italy, India, China, Japan, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Brazil, Russia and Mexico.
This was the movie's first international screening. The drama will go on screen in Iran by next month.
According to Variety, the Shanghai prizes were decided by a jury headed by Turkey’s Nuri Bilge Ceylan, which also gave a double dose of awards to “Inhale-Exhale,” a drama about trust and rehabilitation directed by Dito Tsintsadze. The film, a Georgia-Russia-Sweden co-production, earned the festival’s grand jury prize and the best actress award for Salome Demuria.
The 22nd edition of Shanghai International Film Festival took place from June 15th to 24th, 2019.
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