On Tuesday, April 23, A-list Iranian actor Ali Nasirian and Ezatollah Ramezanifar attended the official screening of Dariush Mehrjui’s classic The Cow on the big screen in the main venue of 37th Fajr International Film Festival in Charsou Cineplex.
The movie’s actors were accompanied by Festival Director Seyyed Reza Mirkarimi and Festival Palace Manager Reza Kianian.
The unique program included screening of a newly-found footage from behind the scene of Mehrjui’s compelling symbolic drama. The rare footage included the original testing of players for roles in the movie, which shows the rural impoverishment that existed under the Shah of Iran before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The digitally restored footage of The Cow screened in the Classics Preserved section of Fajr, which was concurrent with the 50th anniversary of the film’s first release. The actors include the late Jamshid Mashayekhi, Ezzatollah Entezami and Jafar Vaali.
The Cow is a 1969 Iranian film, written by Gholam-Hossein Saedi based on his own play and novel. Critics widely consider it the first film of the Iranian New Wave. It won Best Film Award La Rochelle 1994, OCIC Award – Recommendation – Forum of New Film 22nd Berlin International Film Festival 1972, FIPRESCI Prize 32nd Venice International Film Festival 1971, Best Actor Award Chicago International Film Festival 1971, and Award for Best Screenplay Sepas Film Festival 1970.
Presided over by award-winning writer and director Seyyed Reza Mirkarimi, the 37th Fajr International Film Festival runs until April 26 in Tehran.
