The film season of 2014 is officially on. With
Pearl Film Festival calling for entries, we’re indeed in for a screen
rollercoaster this year.
On Friday, two of film festivals kicked off, the
Japanese Film festival at Cineplex Cinema and the much publicized second
Iranian Film Festival at National Theatre.
Earlier in the day, there was a lot of romp about
the Iranian Film Festival; the numerous posts on social media which even
included the release of their programme and schedule made the event a must
attend.
It was earlier communicated that the festival
would start with a colourful opening ceremony at 3pm, though for some reason,
it was extended till further notice, instead, there were colorfully dressed
band boys playing mostly popular songs.
It was anticipated that the show would eventually
open at 5pm but it was impossible since the chief movie watcher, the speaker,
hon. Rebecca Kadaga wasn’t on location yet, thus getting the programme
stretched to accommodate speeches by film maker Ashraf Ssemwogere, who called
on the Iranian community to collaborate with Ugandan directors and
entertainment by a Ugandan Matari troupe and a cultural dance from an all
Iranian group.
The Iranian singers and dancers stole the show in
all ways; their simple but incredibly audible instruments produced a sound that
went in between a Juma prayer, musical performance and a cultural celebration
that it was, since their songs went on for about five minutes, they could only
perform three and the most interesting one being the last one that involved an
energetic dance of pounding the ground with their feet while swinging colored
hankies.
At about 7:30pm, Kadaga arrived to open the show,
many had anticipated she would stay to at least watch a twenty minute
documentary about emancipation of women in Iran but it was impossible, she only
delivered a less than two minute speech where she hinted on a Memorandum of
Understanding the parliament is yet to sign with the Assembly of Iran.
Almost twenty minutes after arriving, she was
living which prompted one of the people attending to complain; “we waited for
her from 5pm and she has only made an appearance, Madam Speaker has indeed
beeped us.”
However before the opening ceremony, at 3pm, in
auditorium, the ball rolled with Mr. Yosef (Agha Yousef), a 2011 film about a
man living with his only daughter and doing every job for her that she never
leaves. But a misunderstanding complicates everything.
The second and final movie of the night was 1999
hit, The Color of Paradise, a story of a blind boy Mohammed (Moshen Ramezani) is a student at
a special school for blind children in Tehran; when summer break rolls around,
Mohammad is the last student to be picked up by his family. His mother is dead,
and his father (Hossein Mahjub), who earns a meagre wage working in a charcoal
producing plant, sometimes considers abandoning the boy. However, father does
eventually arrive, and Mohammad spends the summer with his sisters and
grandmother at a farm surrounding by dazzling fields of wild flowers. The
summer in the country is a joyous experience for Mohammad, until he discovers
his father is giving thoughts to re-marrying, and considers his handicapped son
to be a stumbling block in his future matrimonial plans.
According to the Iranian Ambassador to Uganda,
Amir Hossein Nikbin, Uganda and iran have a lot to share cultural wise and they
are working on collaborating on many fronts.
“We’ve invited some actors and directors to
acquire skills from our film universities,” he says.
The Persian/Iranian film industry has been ranked by critics as the world's
most important national cinema, artistically, with a significance that invites
comparison to Italian neorealism and similar movements in past decades.
The cinema has achieved global success through nominations and recognitions at
the Golden Globes, Academy Awards and the Cannes Film festival.
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