Opening of Locarno Festival; Iranian Cinema in Competition Section

The 68th edition of the Locarno International Film Festival, one of the oldest film festivals in the world, opened on the evening of August 14 in the city of Locarno, Switzerland. This year, after many years, an Iranian film has been accepted into its competition section. Locarno paid significant attention to Iranian cinema in the 1990s, and this festival is even referred to as a launching pad for Iranian cinema during those years; however, in recent years, the absence of Iranian cinema at this festival has been noticeable. The Iranian film 'We Are in Heaven' (internationally titled 'Heaven'), directed by Sina Attaiyan Dena, will be showcased in the competition section this year. This film, featuring actors such as Dorna Dibaj, Fariba Kamran, Fatemeh Naqavi, and Nahid Moslemi, is considered the director's first feature film. Attaiyan Dena, who studied at Sooreh University, has a short film, a documentary, and an animation in his portfolio. According to the festival catalog, the film tells the story of a 24-year-old woman named Hanieh from the middle class, who has to travel a long distance every early morning to teach at a school in the suburbs of Tehran, and her request for a transfer to the city has become mired in bureaucratic red tape. One day, however, two female students go missing, and it appears they have been kidnapped. The filmmaker states that this is the first part of a trilogy about violence in Tehran. The most attractive part of the Locarno Festival is the screening of films in the Piazza Grande, which has the largest screen in Europe and attracts between five to eight thousand people each night to watch films outdoors. This magnificent square hosted the official opening of the festival on Wednesday night, during which the festival judges were introduced, and the special lifetime achievement award was presented to Edward Norton, a prominent actor in cinema (notable for his performances in films such as 'Fight Club' and 'Birdman'). Norton expressed gratitude for a festival like Locarno that 'helps keep art cinema alive.' The opening film of this year's festival was a worthy one: 'Ricki and the Flash,' directed by Jonathan Demme and starring Meryl Streep and her daughter. Ricki (Streep), who sings in a cafe, has not seen her two sons and daughter for years. When her ex-husband informs her that their daughter is not in a good mental state, Ricki comes to visit her family. The film is a delightful return to a world that Demme knows well and was very successful in narrating in 'Rachel Getting Married' (2008). This time, the filmmaker manages to penetrate the heart of contemporary America and narrate the most beautiful human emotions within the context of a broken family. Demme's camera follows the restless and anxious characters (exactly like in the nearly masterful film 'Rachel Getting Married') while also managing to stand apart from them and keep the film from drowning in melodramatic tear-jerking scenes. This year, nineteen films will compete for the Golden Leopard of the festival. Competing against the Iranian film 'We Are in Heaven' are films such as 'Winter Song' by Outar Yuslani, in which this acclaimed Georgian filmmaker narrates several parallel stories. The renowned Belgian filmmaker Chantal Akerman also has a small film titled 'No Home Movie' in the competition section, which is essentially a tribute to her mother, who fled Poland to Belgium in 1938 and had little connection with the outside world while living in an apartment there. British experimental filmmaker Ben Rivers is also present in the competition with a film titled 'The Sky Roars and the Earth Fears and Two Eyes Are Not Brothers.' The Locarno Festival will continue until next Saturday (August 15).