Directed by Mohammadreza Vatandoust, Iranian documentary ‘Lotus’ had its Canadian premiere at the 19th edition of Gimli Film Festival on July 27.

In April of 2010, after the construction of the Lafour dam, Lafourak and several other villages were flooded under 80 meters of water. ‘Lotus’ narrates the story of one old woman who has waited 12 years for permission to cross the lake to an island where the last resident of Lafourak waits for her.

The documentary won Best Director Documentary award at the 18th Beirut International Film Festival in Lebanon, as well as the ‘Artistic Vision Award’ at the 16th Big Sky Documentary Film Festival in US.

The Gimli Film Festival is a Canadian international film festival, held annually in Gimli, Manitoba. It is Manitoba’s largest film festival, showcasing a mix of narrative, documentary and experimental feature films and short films. The festival is known for its free outdoor beach film screenings, where films are projected on an 11-meter-tall screen erected annually in the waters of Lake Winnipeg.

The 19th edition of the event took place on July 24 – July 28, 2019.

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“Once Upon a Time a Woman”, Jalil Akbari-Sehat’s directorial debut is also on view at the market, which will run until May 23.

The lineup also includes four documentary films, one of which is “A House for You” by Mehdi Bakhshi-Moqaddam about Davud who has been diagnosed with lung cancer, and his dream is to build a house for his beloved wife.

“Dilag” by Abbas Rafiei and Safiollah Hosseini is in praise of an old man in an Iranian village for his joie de vivre.

“The 40th Day” by Hamid Kuhpai revolves around the Arbaeen pilgrimage.

“Captain 22” by Arman Qolipur Dashtaki is about a drug addict who begins to encourage youth to play sports after he can complete a drug rehab program.

The animated movies “Lopeto” by Abbas Askari and “The Last Fish” by Masud Saemin are also on display at the business counterpart of the Cannes Film Festival and the largest film market in the world.

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Politicians like Trump, Iñárritu said, “are basically ruling with rage and angriness . . . and are basically writing fiction and making people believe that those are facts. I am not a politician, but as an artist, I can express with an open heart what I think to be truthful [from working] with immigrants . . . The problem is ignorance. People do not know [their story], so it is very easy [for politicians] to manipulate them.”

An international film festival like Cannes, Iñárritu argued, is a way for audiences to be transported into different cultures and see how others live.

“In the United States, or in Mexico—where you isolate nationalistically, people just identify with themselves, and it is a very dangerous thing,” Iñárritu said. “Because then we don’t consider the otherness.”

“I am against what is happening all around the world, and I expect that there will be something that happens that stops this dangerous thing. We know how this story ends if we keep with that rhetoric. . . We think we are evolving with technology and social media,” he continued, before alluding to the Twitter-happy U.S. president. “But it seems that every Tweet is a brick of isolation and attached ideological thinking, and it is creating a lot of isolation, and a lot of paranoia with it.”

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Written and directed by Shahed Ahmadlou, and produced by Ali Yavar, the Iranian black comedy ‘Cinema Donkey’ is about a filming group, which is making a humanitarian film that has a message for humanity. They need a professional donkey to play in a few scenes. Failing to find one, they settle for a donkey wandering in the woods.

Marché du Film represents the largest international gathering of film professionals. Established in 1959, it is held annually in conjunction with the Festival de Cannes, which is slated for May 14 – May 23, 2019 in France.

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“Umbra” by Saeid Jafarian will be screened in the short films competition and “Like a Good Kid” by Arian Vazirdaftari will go on screen in the Cinéfondation, which is dedicated to young filmmakers.

“Umbra” is about a young lady who realizes a few minutes after midnight that her partner has disappeared. She goes out worriedly to seek her partner in the darkness of streets.

The movie will compete with seven other films from Australia, China, France, Japan, the Philippines, Poland and the USA.

“Like a Good Kid” tells the story of Sara, a 24-year-old girl who is supposed to babysit Matin, a 6-year-old boy, for the day, while his mother is at work. In the morning, Matin tells Sara a story of a fight with his mother from the night before that leads to a series of events throughout the day which will change Matin and Sara for the rest of their lives.

The Cinéfondation Selection has chosen 17 films for this year’s Cannes, which will open with Farhadi’s drama “Everybody Knows” at the Grand Theater Lumière in the Palais des Festivals on 8 May.

Photo: “Like a Good Kid” by Iranian director Arian Vazirdaftari will go on screen in the Cinéfondation during the Cannes Film Festival.

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