Awards winners of the 3rd edition of the International Women’s Film festival-Herat were announced on October 13, 2015 at the closing Ceremony. The international, jury after a three-day review of 66 films selected for screening this year, rewarded the following:
International selection from among 21 international films
Best documentary Film
MY NAME IS SALT
Director: Farida Pacha, India Documentary; 92 Min
Date & place of production: 2013, Switzerland / India
Synopsis: The desert extends endlessly – flat, grey, relentless. But there is one thing in abundance: salt, lying just beneath the cracked, baked surface of the earth. This is a 5,000 km of saline desert in India. For eight months of the year, Sanabhai and his family live here without water, electricity or provisions – tirelessly extracting salt from this desolate landscape. After months of hard work, the salt is ready to be harvested – just before the heavy monsoon rains will come to once again wash their salt fields away.
Farida Pacha was born in Bombay in 1972. She is living in and working from Zurich, Switzerland. After obtaining her MFA in filmmaking at Southern Illinois University, USA, she has made several experimental, educational and documentary films. Her documentary “The Seedkeepers” won the 2006 Indian National Film Award. “My Name is Salt” is her first feature length documentary, which won her among many others the First Appearance Award at IDFA 2013, Amsterdam, as well as the main prizes at Hong Kong, Madrid, Edinburgh and the German Camera Award 2014 for Best Cinematography in a documentary film.
Best feature film
Oblivion Season
Original Title: فصل فراموشی فریبا
Director: Abbas Rafei, Iran Fiction; 93 minutes
Date & place of production: 2014, Iran
Synopsis: An ex-prostitute starts a new life by marrying her loved one but leaving the shadow of her dark past is not as easy as it had seemed. Now, she is the prisoner of her loved one and she has to fight the masculine society to earn her freedom. Making a film about prostitutes is a real challenge in today’s Iranian society, because the society and the government deny their very existence. Now it is much more difficult if your protagonist is an ex- prostitute.
Abbas Rafei was born in Shiraz/ Iran, in 1962. He is a graduate of cinematography and has received his MA in dramatic literature. Abbas Rafei also established a film production company in 1995, when he produced his first movie «Mina›s Secret». He has made TV series, fiction and documentary movies and has received awards from international festivals. His films include: Oblivion Season (2014), The Freeway (2013), The Meeting )2011), Granaz (2009), (Elixir and Dust )2008), The Sun Shines on All Equally )2005), Butterfly in the wind (2004) and Mina›s Secret (1996).
Best short fiction film
I Say Dust
Director: Darine Hotait, Lebanese- American
Short Narrative- Drama; 14 Min
Date & place of production: 2015, USA
Synopsis: ‹I Say Dust› is An Arab American take on identity in a diaspora context. It tells the story of Hal, an Arab-American poet from the Palestinian diaspora in New York City, who meets Moun, a free- spirited chess sales girl. Their brief love affair eventuates in challenging their understanding of what makes home.
Darine Hotait was born in Beirut in the midst of the Lebanese civil war. Her family emigrated to the United States when she was very young. Darine her MFA in screenwriting and film directing and wrote and directed a number of short films. In 2010, she founded Cinephilia Productions in New York City, an independent film production company focused on producing content from the MENA region. She is a writer, director as well as a published playwright, and poet. Her work appeared in various publications in the US and the UK. Darine Hotait’s films include “Beirut Hide and Seek”, “The Far Side of Laughter”, “Command or Truth”, and “Ashur”. Her film “ORB” (a narrative science fiction) is in pre-production stage. Her short films have won prestigious awards at international film festivals, including ‹EMMY award Finalist›, ‹Best Short Film at Evolution FF, ‹Audience Award› at Zero FF, ‹Nominated for a Best Foreign Film› at International Filmmaker Festival, ‹Honorable Mention› at the Los Angeles International FF, among others. Darine is currently developing her debut science fiction feature film ‹Symphony of a Flood› which made it to the finalists list at the Hearst Screenwriting Competition.
Best Animation
The Fried Fish
Original Title: ماهی سرخشده
Director: Leila Khalilzadeh, Iran
Animation; 10:38 Min
Date & place of production: 2014, Iran
Synopsis: The fish is yearning to see the sea once again. He asks a cat, a mouse, a dog and a crow for help. They each eat a part of his flesh and carry him some distance farther down the path to the sea, but after a while, they put him down and leave. At the end, some ants throw the fish›s skeleton into the sea. The fish happily swims away in the deep blue sea.
Leila Khalilzadeh obtained her Master’s Degree in Cinema in Tehran, Iran. She is the author of articles on animation and children and adolescents movies in Picture World Movie Magazine. She teaches animation courses in Art & Culture Educational Centre of Applied Science & Technology. Her films include: Meels and Felt, A Gabbeh for Hanna, Looking for rugs, 1001 Warps1001- Woofs, Someone is weaving, Portrait of Filmmaker, The Garden of a Thousand Girls, Ice Cream & Cigarette, Another true story, Love and plastic, Angles live over the hills, Butterflies’ dream, My sweetheart is sweeter than death, Railroad.
Jury Prize
Ants’ Apartment
Original Title: Koshki merulekan
Director: Tofigh Amani, Iran
Short fiction; 11 Min
Date & place of production: 2014, Kurdistan / Iraq
Synopsis: This story is about a threesome family who live in the ant’s apartment in one of the deserts of Iraq after the war. One day a strange thing happens that changes …
Tofigh Amani was born in Mariwan, Kurdistan (Iran) in 1981. He studied cinema at the «Iranian Young Cinema Society» in 2004 and in 2006. He now teaches cinema in the «Iranian Young Cinema Society.» Ants’ apartment has won best film awards in several festivals including FIKE (Portugal, 2014), Fribourg (Switzerland, 2015), Tabor (Croatia, 2015), Yielmaz Guney (Turkey, 2015), Varesh (Iran, 2015), and Aftab (Iran, 2014); Special award Fabriano Film Festival (Italy, 2014), Nationwide Produce Award in Strawberry Shorts Film Festival (United Kingdom, 2015), Best second short film in Beirut Film Festival (Lebanon, 2014). Amani’s first film was “Goli paraw”. He has made 7 short films including «Here the roads have not end». This film played in numerous festivals and has won 35 awards, notably the award for best film in Porto Film Festival (Portugal) and Corto In Bra Film Festival (Italy) in 2009.
National selection; among 13 Afghan film
Best documentary
Loneliness
Director: Sabera Rezaei, Afghanistan
Documentary, 19 minutes
Date & place of production: 2014, Afghanistan
Synopsis: A woman has separated from her husband and is living on her own. She is fighting the problems in Afghanistan to stay by her child.
Sabera Rezaei, born in Bamiyan and student of Political Science, began her work in theatre and then started acting in films. She won prizes as the leading actress in her first film in three film festivals: Human Rights, New Outlook and Herat Women’s Film Festival. She attended Filmmaking courses of the British Embassy, where her screenplay was one of the two selected screenplays. She made her first documentary with funding from the British Embassy.
Best short fiction film
In Circle
Director: Masooma Ibrahimi, Afghan
Original Title: In Circle
Short film, 14 Min
Date & place of production: 2014, Afghanistan
Synopsis: This film is about a poor girl. She wants change her life with changing her bag.
Masooma Ibrahimi has made 2 short films, Arastoo and In Circle, which she made after participating in British Council workshops and the British Council supports her. She has also made a long documentary about Afghan women.
Best Animation
Schizophrenia
Director: Lajevard Haghighi, Afghan
Original Title: شیزهفرنی
Short animation, 4 minutes 34 seconds
Date & place of production: 2013, Afghanistan
Synopsis: Schizophrenia is a psychological disease that is caused by different behaviours. It restricts life and brings pain and suffering, and turns desires, joy, hope and happy memories to pain and sadness.
Lajevard Haghighi was born in Kabul in 1990 and attended a writing course simultaneously with high school. He entered the Arts Faculty in 2008 and graduated from Kabul University in Graphic Design in 2011. He learned Animation Directing at Goethe Institute and established Afghan Animation Studio in 2012. He has made 8 animation films and one documentary and written 10 short stories and five drama screenplays, among other achievements. He has won the best animation award at EUNIC Festival.
Best Director
Conflict
Original Title: شکر آزاری
Director: Khadim Hussain Byhname, Afghan
Short fiction, 6 Min
Date & place of production: 2014, Afghanistan
Synopsis: “Conflict” is about the lives of two children, a girl and a boy, whose parents discriminate between them and generate a complex in them. The girl finds a solution…
Khadim Hussain Byhname was born into a cultural family in Ghazni / Afghanistan in 1993. His interest in cinema led him to filmmaking. He is now a fourth-year student in Kabul University. He has established the “Image of Thought” group and has made 9 short films in three years. His films have been screened in the domestic and international film festivals and received awards.
Best actress
Lina Alam in “Gamar”
and special Jury award
Gamar
Fiction, 17 Min
Date & place of production: 2015, Afghanistan
Synopsis: Without informing Gamar, Sattar marries their young daughter to a middle-aged man. Despite all her efforts, Gamar fails to prevent it. The girls flees her husband’s house on the wedding night. He takes her . back by force. Gamar goes to his house and during a confrontation kills him to save her daughter.
Nima Latifi, born in Tehran / Iran, is a BA graduate from the University of Applied Sciences. He has won the Best Commercial Award in Tehran and two awards for the Best Screenplay in New Perspective Festival of Kabul. He is also the writer of “Star – Light – Shadow” series.
Best actress
Marina Gulbahari in “The Lost Bag”
The Lost Bag
Director: Mohamad Nasir Hashimi, Afghan
Original Title: دستکول گمشده
Short fiction, 15 Min
Date & place of production: 2015, Afghanistan
Synopsis: A young girl strives to find her missing hand bag.
Mohamad Nasir Hashimi, born in Baghlan province / Afghanistan in 1990, is a graduate of filmmaking from the Faculty of Fine Arts of Kabul University. He has been making films for the past seven years.
Best film script
Maz
Director: Sayed Masood Eslami & Jalal Hosseini, Afghan
Original Title: ماز
Short fiction, 15 Min
Date & place of production: 2015, Afghanistan
Synopsis: This film narrates stories of two families and their cultural problems.
Masood Eslmai graduated from the Young Cinema Society. He has made many short films and directed a number of TV series. “Swap” was his last short film that won the first award in Women’s Voices Festival (USA) and the Best Film Award in Mehregan Short Films Festival. He was a filmmaking trainer in the British Council workshops (-2013 2014) and participated in the Asian Film Academy (2014). He has made a long documentary about Taqi Afghan Rocker and is now working at Tora Bora Media. He was assistant director in the German film “Inbetween worlds” directed by Feo Aladag in 2013.
Jury appreciation
Flight Mandatory
Original Tit: پرواز اجباری
Director: Azizullah Haidari, Afghan Fiction, 5 minutes
Date & place of production: 2014, Afghanistan
Synopsis: Farhad is a young man who has lost his wife and child in the war. His love for them has forced him into depression. He is building a house at a quiet place away from the city and decorating a grave with his child’s toy.
Azizullah Haidari was born in 1988. He entered Kabul University in 2010 and graduated from Fine Arts Faculty in Film Directing. During his academic studies, he made two short films: After the War and Forced Flight. He is working for Kelid Radio.
