For the fourth consecutive year, Charsou Cineplex in downtown Tehran will host the 13th Iran International Documentary Film Festival, known as Cinema Vérité, from 9th Dec. to 16th Dec. 2019.
According to the event's organizers, this year’s lineup includes 74 full-length, 188 half-length and 413 short documentary films.
Notable among the participating titles is ‘It's Not Yet Dark’, a 2016 Irish production directed by Frankie Fenton. Narrated by Colin Farrell, the documentary is about the Irish filmmaker Simon Fitzmaurice who refuses to let a diagnosis of Motor Neuron Disease stop him from directing a feature film using only his eyes to communicate via a computer.
‘Last Night I Saw You Smiling’ (2019) by Combodian filmmaker Neang Kavich is also taking part at the festival. The documentary narrates the story of three families who are packing their belongings, sharing memories and anxieties, and eventually move out before a building is destroyed.
This year, the number of submitted films to the national section registered some 8 percent increase compared to last year, with the number of submissions standing at 634, according to the event's organizers.
It was previously announced that nearly 6,000 documentaries from over 100 countries such as Italy, Turkey, UK, Germany, US, Finland, Korea, Egypt, etc., submitted films to the international section of the festival.
Cinema Vérité is Iran’s most prominent festival dedicated to documentaries, with an aim to express the relationship between reality and truth through documentary films.
Last year, 56 documentaries from 33 countries made up the screening program of the festival, with Germany leading with 8 films in the lineup. ‘A House for You’ by Mehdi Bakhshi won the festival’s Turquoise Symbol for Best Documentary.
Iran’s Cinema Vérité is organized by Iran Documentary and Experimental Film Center (DEFC), and presided over by Mohammad Hamidi Moghadam for its 13th edition.
MS/