Friday, April 6, 7:30pm, UNC Charlotte main campus, McKnight Hall
Reza Mirkarimi, Iran, 2011 / 116 min
Farsi (Persian) with English Subtitles
Sponsored by the UNC Charlotte Iranian Student Organization
Introduction by TBA. Discussion will follow screening.
The main story is about a day of life in a very traditional family in Iran. Pasandideh, the youngest girl in a traditional family, is living with her family and relatives, including her mother, her old uncle, and her aunt. They live in a traditional old house in an old city. She is supposed to marry a family friend’s grandson who is a student in a western country. Everything is already arranged for the marriage, and all of her sisters arrive to the old house one by one. The wedding seems like a marvelous opportunity for a great reunion. However, is a single cube of sugar enough to bring sweetness and happiness?
Reza Mirkarimi was born in 1967 in Tehran and graduated from the Fine Arts University in Graphic Arts. His cinema activities began in 1987 with a series of shorts followed by two TV series aimed at young people. His 1999 first feature, The Child and The Soldier, has won several national and international awards, including the ‘Golden Butterfly’ at the 1999 Isfahan International Children and Teenagers Film Festival, Iran, and the ‘Montgolfiere d’Argent’ at the Festival of 3 Continents, Nantes, France in 2000, as well the ‘Golden Shoe’ at the ‘Children and Teenagers Film Festival’ in Zelin, Croatia in 2001. The Child and The Soldier was released in France in 2001. In 2000 his second feature, Under the Moonlight, dealing with social and religious issues, won the Best Feature Award at the 40th Critics’ Week at the 2001 Cannes International Film Festival. The film also won the Best Director’s Award as well as the Special Jury Prize at the Tokyo IFF in 2001. A fifth feature, As Simple as That, won the 2008 Golden St George Best Film Award at the Moscow IFF. Three of his films have been presented by Iran for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar: So Close, So Far, A Cube of Sugar, and Today. Reza Mirkarimi has also sat on several international film festival juries.
