About Elly (2009)

TEHRAN — Asghar Farhadi’s “About Elly” stands on top with eight nominations in the fourteenth edition of the Iran Cinema Celebration awards, announced the secretary of the event in a press release on Tuesday (Aug 24th, 2010).

“About Elly”, which won Farhadi a Silver Bear for best director at the Berlinale 2009, has been nominated in the different categories of best director, best screenplay, best actress, best actor and four others.

Starring Shahab Hosseini, Golshifteh Farahani, Mani Haqiqi, Saber Abar and Merila Zarei, “About Elly” tells the story of middle class Iranians whose trip to the Caspian Sea turns into a disaster as they try to maintain their social customs.

A jury comprising over 60 Iranian cineastes has completed its selection of nominations for the event, said festival secretary Farhad Tohidi.

The annually held celebration is sponsored by Iran’s House of Cinema. However, the 13th edition took place without having a winner or an award ceremony.

The following is the list of nominees for awards in the 14th edition of the celebration:

Best Director:

Varuj Karim-Masihi “Hesitation”. Asghar Farhadi “About Elly”. Dariush Mehrjuii “Santuri”. Bahram Beizaii “When All of Us Are Asleep”.

Best Screenplay:

“About Elly” Asghar Farhadi. “Fire Keeper” Mohsen Amiryusefi. “Gold and Copper” Hamed Mohammadi. “Please Don’t Disturb” Mohsen Abdolvahhab.

Best Actress:

Golshifteh Farahani “About Elly”. Leila Hatami “Walking in Fog”. Hanieh Tavassoli “Evening of the 10th Day”. Hedyeh Tehrani “Seven Minutes to Autumn”. Negar Javaherian “Gold and Copper”.

Best Supporting Actress:

Merila Zarei “About Elly”. Rana Azadivar “About Elly”. Sareh Bayat “Imitator of Satan”. Sahar Dowlatshahi “Gold and Copper”. Jaleh Sameti “Hieran”

Best Actor:

Shahab Hosseini “About Elly” and “Walking in Fog”. Hamid Farrokhnejad “Fire Keeper” and “In the Color of Purple”. Mohammadreza Forutan “The Other”. Mehdi Hashemi “Nothing”. Hamed Behdad “Seven Minutes to Autumn”.

Best Supporting Actor:

Mehran Ahmadi “Nothing” and “Twenty”. Mohsen Tanabandeh “A Testimonial for God”. Babak Hamidian “Penniless”. Saber Abar “About Elly”.

Children of Heaven (1997)

One of the most successful Ira­nian films in the West, Majid Majidi’s Children of Heaven received an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Film. It opens with eight-year-old Ali losing his younger sister Zahra’s newly repaired shoes. To avoid admitting this loss to his father, Ali and Zahra share a pair of sneakers, and much of the film revolves around their at­tempts to manage their exchange without being late for school.

The importance of shoes is emphasized when hundreds are depicted lined up outside a mosque, where the children’s father works serving tea, while their owners pray inside. Scenes in which the camera often focuses on the feet of the children running through the often cramped streets of poor, southern Tehran strikingly contrast a sequence set in the upscale, northern part of the city, where Ali proves much more capable than his father of communicating with the wealthy, coming to entertain a privileged boy while his father sprays trees in a spa­cious garden.

Finally, Ali enters a race in which third prize is a pair of shoes, but ends up disappointed when he comes in first. Children of Heaven is a melodrama, and Majidi uses slow-motion and emotive music, among other devices, to ensure audience empathy with his young characters. The film’s English title substitutes “Heaven” for “Sky,” a more literal translation from the Persian.

Cast and Production Credits

Year – 1997, Genre – Drama, Country – Iran, Language – Persian, Producer – Amir Esfandiari, Director – Majid Majidi, Music Director – Keivan Jahanshahi, Cast - Mohammad Amir Naji ,Mir Farrokh Hashemian, Bahareh Sedighi, Nafiseh Jafar Mohammadi ,Fereshteh Sarabandi ,Kamal Mirkarimi, Behzad Rafi ,Dariush Mokhtari ,Mohammad Hassan Hosseinian ,Masumeh Dalir, Zahra Mezani ,Kazem Asgharpour ,Mohammad Hossein Shahedi, Seyyed Ali Hosseini

In a written statement to the festival, where his short film “The Accordion” is screening, Panahi said that he had been officially banned from making films in the past five years.

“Despite having been released, I am still not free to travel outside my country to attend film festivals,” the award-winning director said.

“When a filmmaker is not allowed to make films, it is as if his mind was still imprisoned. Maybe he is not locked up in a small cell, but he keeps wandering in a much bigger jail.”

Panahi, a supporter of opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi in last year’s disputed presidential election, was released on bail in May after a week on hunger strike. He had been held for 88 days as authorities suspected him of planning to make an anti-government film.

Panahi thanked the cinema industry for its support — particularly at this year’s Cannes festival, where French actress Juliette Binoche criticized Iran for imprisoning him in her acceptance speech for the best actress award.

“In the most desperate moments of my imprisonment, during the hunger strike, I drew courage thinking of myself as a proud member of this community,” he said in the statement.

“I think all the support I received came from individual people and organizations who firmly believe in cinema and in filmmakers’ freedom of expression. Let’s hope one day all governments in the world will come to share this idea.”

Panahi won the Camera d’Or prize in Cannes for his 1995 film “White Balloon.” Five years later, he took the top Golden Lion award in Venice with “The Circle.”

“The Accordion,” which was made before Panahi’s arrest, is a nine-minute long film about two young buskers in Tehran.