The three films that made it into the screening program of the 30th edition of Palm Springs International Film Festival are ‘Cold Sweat’ directed by Soheil Beiraghi and ‘Orange Days’ directed by Arash Lahooti, both to be screened in the World Cinema Now section, and Asghar Farhadi’s Oscar-winning ‘A Separation’ to be screened in Palm Springs Canon section.
‘Cold Sweat’ directed by Soheil Beiraghi is based on real cases of women athletes being denied clearance to travel, in this film, Afrooz, whose Iranian women’s futsal team is off to play the finals in Malaysia, can’t board the plane — her husband hasn’t signed the permit for her to leave the country. The festival describes Soheil Beiraghi’s second feature as “a timely and gripping account of the strict patriarchal laws that still exist and the fierce determination of the women attempting to fight against them.”
‘Orange Days’ directed by Arash Lahooti is the story of “Aban — tough, self-sufficient, and the only woman contractor in the orange fields of northern Iran — who beats out the male competition for a big job, and the operation seems to get off to a rocky start. But Aban won’t let go without a fight.”
The film has recently won three awards at the 67th Mannheim-Heidelberg International Film Festival in Germany.
‘A Separation’ by Asghar Farhadi is described by the festival as “tense and dramatically complex, formally dense and morally challenging”, calling it Farhadi’s strongest work yet. The provocative plot casts a revealing light on contemporary Iranian society as it takes on issues of gender, class, justice and honor.
The 30th Palm Springs International Film Festival will be held on 3-14 January 2019 in California, US.
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