The 26th Fajr International Film Festival is slated for February 1-11 in Tehran.
According to MNA, the competition section of Iranian Cinema, in which films by distinguished filmmakers will premiere, gives much credit to the prestigious cultural event.
Here is a list of the films which will premiere at the upcoming festival.
’Relations’ is a film directed by critic and filmmaker Iraj Karimi.
This is Karimi’s fifth feature which was earlier produced in form of a telefilm. Similar to his other works, the film portrays relations between young couples.
The cast of the film includes Mohammad Reza Foroutan, Shahrokh Foroutanian and Shabnam Moqaddami.
Parisa Bakhtavar will have her first feature ’Tambourine ’ screened at the festival. Like her previous works, the film has comic overtones.
Veteran director Behrouz Afkhami’s ’Son of Dawn’ is the other film to be featured at the event.
The film, which depicts the life of the father of the Islamic Revolution, the late Imam Khomeini, has taken three years to complete.
Arman Iranpour, Hadi Heidari and Abdolreza Akbari play the role of the Imam as a child, young man and an adult, respectively.
Prolific filmmaker Tahmineh Milani will also feature ’Settlement’ at the event. She has ’Ceasefire’ to her credit.
’The Wall’ directed by Mohammad Ali Talebi will also be screened at the event. The director, whose works included ’Mice City’, focuses on child cinema in his works.
Other films include ’Hamoun and Darya’ directed by Ebrahim Forouzesh, ’Wind Whirls in the Lawn’ by Khosrow Ma’soumi, ’Yonder’ by Abdolreza Kahani, ’Second Wife’ by Sirous Alvand and ’Three Women, by Manijeh Hekmat.
Meanwhile, director of Farabi Cinema Foundation for commercial affairs told the same source that the festival’s top prize ’Crystal Simorgh (phoenix)’ will be ready by January 21.
Ezzatollah Alizadeh also said that two kinds of Simorghs are being designed for the festival.
The first group has a golden base and will be presented in the international competition section, while silver-based Simorghs will be distributed in the competition section of Iranian Cinema. “The Simorghs will be presented along with their IDs in the upcoming edition of the festival,“ he said.

Rakhshan Bani-Etemad

Noted Iranian director Rakhshan Bani-Etemad donated 53 international and national awards as well as several books and scripts to Cinema Museum.
According to MNA, the prizes, covering the period from 1986 to the present, were presented for nine of her feature films, namely: ’Off-Limits’, ’Canary Yellow’, ’Foreign Currency’, ’Narges’, ’Blue Scarf’, ’Under the Skin of the City’, ’Our Times’, ’Gilaneh’ and ’Mainline’.
Bani-Etemad received her first award at the Italian Comic Films Festival for her first feature film ’Off-Limits’ in 1986 while she took her last prize, the Asia-Pacific Screen Award, in 2007 for her film ’Mainline’.
During an artistic career spanning 34 years, Bani-Etemad, who also won the title of the best woman director at New Delhi Festival, made several documentaries.
In a note submitted with the awards to Cinema Museum, she wrote that at one point she wanted to sell all her prizes and set up a foundation to support women breadwinners. “This is still my wish and I request the museum to materialize the idea once the grounds are prepared for that.“
Bani-Etemad was born in Tehran in 1954. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in film directing from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts, Tehran University and began her career as a documentary filmmaker for IRIB, (Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting). Social themes dominate her works and women play the lead role in most of her films.
She has also been on the panel of jury in several local and international festivals. She is the wife of the film producer Jahangir Kowsari and the mother of budding actress Baran Kowsari.

Niki Karimi and Atila Pesyani in 'Three Women'

The 58th Berlin International Film Festival, known as Berlinale, will be held from February 7-17.
According to ISNA, the film ’Three Women’ directed by Manijeh Hekmat has been selected for the festival’s Panorama section.
The film is about a protagonist Minoo, who is in search of her daughter, while her mother is lost in time. The cast of ’Three Women’ includes Niki Karimi, Pegah Ahangarani, Maryam Boubani, Reza Kianian, and Atila Pesiani.
Samira Makhmalbaf’s ’Buddha Collapsed Out Of Shame’ is another Iranian entry at the festival’s Generation section, which presents lively cinema for young audiences.
Noted Iranian director Majid Majidi’s ’Birds’ Songs’ will also be screened in the Retrospective section of the event.
Berlinale, is one of the world’s leading film festivals held in Germany. Founded in 1951, the festival has been held annually in February since 1978 and with more than 200,000 sold tickets and around 400,000 admissions it is considered the biggest publicly-attended film festival worldwide.
The European Film Market (EFM), a film trade fair integrated parallel to the Berlinale, is one of the most important annual events for international film industry once a year.

Finland-based Iranian writer Kiumars Baqbani is currently translating the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam into Finnish.
More than half of the translation of this opus composed by the illustrious Iranian poet Khayyam (1048-1131 AD) has been completed. A Finnish poet is to undertake the task of transcribing it into rhymed quatrains, reported MNA.
Baqbani has previously translated 48 Persian classic and contemporary poems in an anthology entitled “In Praise of Wisdom“, a name which has been borrowed from the Shahnameh, the masterpiece of the revered Iranian poet Ferdowsi.
These are the first Persian works to have been rendered directly into the Finnish language, Baqbani said.
“In Praise of Wisdom“ has been edited by the Finnish poet and translator Leevi Lehto.
This work received much praise in Finnish literary circles and was reviewed by critic Ville Juhani in Turun Sanomat, Finland’s third most widely read daily newspaper.

Polish TV Polonia network is producing a documentary on the life the noted Iranian film director, Khosrow Sinaei.
Speaking to Fars news agency, Sinaei said that the network had earlier produced a 25-minute film about his trip to that country.
He further said that the network’s feature documentary is based on earlier productions. The film is being produced by Dora Talatur directed by Janus Sidor.
During his visit to the country the TV network broadcast the documentary play ’Lost Elegy’ which deals with the migration of Polish citizens to Iran during World War II.
Sinaei conferred with Andrzej Wajda, a Polish filmmaker.
The documentary on Sinaei will be screened in Paris Cultural Center on January 24.

Noted Iranian vocalist Homayoun Shajarian will perform a concert in Venice on January 24 to the accompaniment of the music band ’Dastan’.
According to ISNA, the event will be sponsored by Iranian Culture Center in Italy.
The band includes Pejman Haddadi (on the Tombak--a traditional percussion instrument), Behnam Samani (Daf, another traditional percussion instrument), Hossein Behrouzi-Nia (Barbat, a string instrument resembling a lute), Saeed Farajpouri (Kamancheh, a traditional violin-like instrument) and Hamid Motabassem (Tar, a traditional string instrument) will accompany Shajarian during the concert.
In the first section, the band will perform poems by Sa’di, Molana and Mohammad Reza Shafiei-Kadkani while the second section will feature lyrics based on works by Attar Neishabouri, Fereydoun Moshiri, Hafez and Siyavash Kasraei.

A couple of historical documents from Astan-e Qods Razavi Organization for Libraries, Museums and Archives Centers in Mashhad, Khorasan Razavi province, have been nominated by Iran for inclusion in UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register.
According to a press release faxed to Iran Daily by the organization affiliated to Astan-e Qods Razavi Foundation, a set of brochures on Qur’anic texts with calligraphy and illustration by Osman Ibn Warraq Ghaznavi dating to between 1069 and 1072 AD is among the documents included in the package.
“The document is important since it provides an outstanding example of the arts of illumination, calligraphy, bookmaking, cover-making, and paper manufacturing during the Seljuk era (1037-1187 AD),“ Astan-e Qods Razavi Organization Director Ali-Mohammad Baradaran Rafiei said.
“The library boasts of unique works which deserve to be registered in this list.“
Out of five works nominated, two were selected for final assessment, he said.
A collection of Astan-e Qods Razavi administrative records from 1591 to 1727 AD is the other Iranian nominee for the list. Some copies of the documents have also been made available to research centers by Astan-e Qods Razavi Organization.
UNESCO International Advisory Committee will evaluate the nominations during its sessions in 2008 and 2009.
Astan-e Qods Razavi Foundation is the custodian of the holy shrine of the eighth Imam of Prophet Muhammad’s (PBUH) infallible household, Imam Reza (AS) in Mashhad.