The Fajr International Film Festival has announced the full lineup of films for their 38th year of celebrating movies in the Special Screenings category – Best of Countries.
200 Meters
Jordan, Palestine, Qatar, Sweden, Italy | 2020 | 96 min
Director: Ameen Nayfeh
Cast: Ali Suleiman, Lana Zreik, Samia Bakri, Tawfeeq Nayfeh, Maryam Nayfeh, Salma Nayfeh, Ghassan Abbas
Synopsis
Mustafa and his wife Salwa live 200 meters apart in villages separated by the apartheid wall. One day he gets a call every parent dreads: his son has had an accident.
Arracht
Ireland | 2019 | 90 min
Director: Tom Sullivan
Cast: Dónall Ó Héalai, Saise NíChuinn, Dara Devaney
Synopsis
Ireland, 1845 on the eve of The Great Hunger. Colmán Sharkey, a fisherman, a father, a husband, takes in a stranger at the behest of a local priest. Patsy, a former soldier in the Napoleonic wars arrives just ahead of ‘the blight,’ a disease that eventually wipes out the country’s potato crop, contributing to the death and displacement of millions.
Nova Lituania
Lithuania | 2019 | 96 min
Director: Karolis Kaupinis
Cast: Aleksas Kazanavičius, Vaidotas Martinaitis, Valentinas Masalskis, Rasa Samuolytė, Eglė Gabrėnaitė
Synopsis
- While the young Lithuanian state celebrates twenty years of independence, the situation in Europe is becoming increasingly tense, and a new war looms on the horizon.
Open Door
Albania, Italy, Macedonia (the former Yugoslav Republic of) | 2019 | 77 min
Director: Florenc Papas
Cast: LuliBitri, JonidaVokshi, Maxwell Guzja, SotiraqBratko, Elidon Aliko
Synopsis
Rudina sets off on a long journey with her unmarried pregnant sister, Elma, to meet their strict, traditional father in the Albanian village where they were born. As Rudina’s car makes its way across the mountains, Elma comes up with a plan to enlist an ex-classmate to play the part of her husband.
Stories From the Chestnut Woods
Italy | 2019 | 81 min
Director: Gregor Božič
Cast: Massimo De Francovich, Ivana Roščić, Giusi Merli
Synopsis
Once upon a time, somewhere in a far-off land, lived an elderly husband and wife. The old woman fell sick and died, and the old man, a stingy carpenter, found himself alone. Pondering the life he had lived, he met a young woman.
The Father
Bulgaria, Greece | 2019 | 85 min
Director: Kristina Grozeva, Petar Valchanov
Cast: Ivan Barnev, Ivan Savov, Tanya Shahova, Hristofor Nedkov
Synopsis
A quirky father tests the nerves of his estranged son at their wife and mother’s funeral. A sleepless night follows as the father obsesses over the last phone conversation with his wife. She had something important to tell him and he couldn’t hear her out.
The 2021 FIFF is scheduled to get underway in the Iranian capital on May 26-June 2. This year’s event is presided over by Iranian film director and screenwriter Mohammad Mehdi Asgarpour. The festival is widely considered one of the most prestigious and influential in Asia, Europe and Greater Middle East.
