MARRAKESH, Morocco — Iranian director Emad
Aleebrahim Dehkordi won the Etoile d’Or top award at the
Marrakech International Film Festival late on Saturday for his debut feature “A Tale of
Shemroon”, and dedicated his prize to “all the women of Iran”.
اضافة اعلان
The film explores the life of a young Iranian living
in Shemroon, north of Tehran, who gets pulled deep into the drug trade while
trying to make some easy money through his connections with Tehran’s wealthy
youth.
“I want to pay tribute to all those who lost their
lives fighting to regain the freedom to be themselves,” said Dehkordi,
referring to the civil unrest in Iran sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa
Amini in September.
“I dedicate my award to all the women of Iran and to
the young generation who risk their lives for freedom,” added the 43-year-old
director.
A crackdown on the protests over the death of Amini
has left at least 378 dead, according to a new report released on Saturday by
the Norway-based Iran Human Rights group.
Amini died three days after her arrest in Tehran by
the notorious morality police over an alleged breach of the Islamic republic’s
strict dress code for women.
The film festival jury — chaired by Oscar-winning
Italian director Paolo Sorrentino and including French actor Tahar Rahim,
Lebanese director Nadine Labaki, and German-American actress
Diane Kruger —
awarded the best directing prize to Switzerland’s Carmen Jaquier for her drama
“Thunder”.
The jury prize was shared by director Maryam Touzani
for “The Blue Caftan”, which is Morocco’s entry for the Oscars, and Portugal’s
Cristele Alves Meira for “Alma Viva”.
South Korea’s Choi Seung-yoon took the best actress
award for her performance in Canadian director Anthony Shim’s “Riceboy Sleeps”,
while Indonesia’s Arswendy Bening Swara claimed best actor honors for his role
in compatriot Makbul Mubarak’s thriller “Autobiography”.
“In the selection, there were only dramas, perhaps
the new directors are interested in dramatic subjects,” Sorrentino told AFP.
The closing ceremony paid tribute to daring and
versatile British actress Tilda Swinton, who chaired the festival jury at its
last pre-COVID edition in 2019.
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