The film 'Crisis Zone' wins Best Film award at the Locarno Festival

The film 'Crisis Zone' directed by Ali Ahmadzadeh won the Golden Leopard for Best Film in the international competition section at the 76th Locarno Festival, as announced by the jury. According to Panah Farhad Bahman, a reporter for the Persian section of Voice of America from the Locarno Festival, Ali Ahmadzadeh, the film's director, was unable to attend the festival due to security pressures. The producers of 'Crisis Zone' reported that the film's crew had faced pressure and 'psychological torture' in recent weeks to withdraw from participating in the Locarno Festival. Sina Danaiyan, one of the producers of 'Crisis Zone,' who accepted the Golden Leopard on behalf of the film's team, expressed sadness over Ahmadzadeh's absence during the award ceremony and urged the audience not to be happy about receiving the award. He stated, 'You should be angry; angry about the censorship imposed on filmmakers in Iran and abroad, from both the left and the right. Angry that such a regime still rules in Iran.' Danaiyan's remarks were met with prolonged standing applause from the audience. The film 'Crisis Zone,' made illegally and underground before the 'Women, Life, Freedom' uprising, tells the story of a drug dealer, offering viewers a completely different perspective from the official narrative. The female actors in this film do not wear mandatory hijabs, and the dialogue is exaggerated and subversive against the current political and traditional standards in Iran. The report from Voice of America also mentioned the pressure from the Islamic Republic to prevent the film's screening at the festival.