Knocking down the stereotyped wall that supposedly divides Arabs and Persians, an Iranian filmmaker has picked an Arab star cast to make an acclaimed film, with a bold political message.
Rama Ghavidel in his movie, Rescue Path , has drawn on actors from Lebanon and Syria. The moving script revolves around a compassionate teacher in a Gaza school who has lost her memory. The tight screenplay highlights the distraught lives of the people of Gaza, who have been for the last five years extraordinary hardships in a coastal enclave that Israel has besieged. Gifted actors Nadine Salameh, Amaneh Vali, Vasim Vahbi and Paul Suleiman have received high critical acclaim for their arresting performances.
The film had shown its calibre to scale the big stage when it won the Mohammad Al-Dore special prize at the 25th edition of the Isfahan International Film Festival. The bigger honour has now followed as Rescue Path has bagged the Golden Hawk best picture award at the recently concluded Arab Film Festival at Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
Nadine Salameh also won the best actress award for her lead role performance in the film.
Rescue Path is yet another illustration of the renaissance that the highly creative Iranian cinema has been for years experiencing.
Audiences in Kerala are now set to witness some top quality Iranian cinema during the December 7-14 international film festival that is being held in Thiruvananthapuram.
The festival will feature Ali Mosaffa’s The Last Step — a film based on James Joyce’s classic, The Dead . It recounts the story of a successful actress, played by the beautiful Leila Hatami, whose life encounters a major and unexpected turnaround with the death of her husband. Film buffs in Kerala’s capital would also witness the extraordinary talent of the legendry Abbas Kiarostami whose film Like Someone in Love is also being screened. Gholam Reza Ramazani with his film My Tribe is also expected to make his mark on Indian audiences at the festival.
