The film Mantagheye bohrani (Critical Zone) has won the Pardo d'oro, or Golden Leopard, at the Locarno International Film Festival in Switzerland.
Directed by Iranian filmmaker Ali Ahmadzadeh, the movie was shot furtively in Tehran without approval from the Iranian government. Ahmadzadeh, whose films are banned in his home country, used hidden cameras to circumvent restrictions.
The film tells the story of a man who drives through the Iranian capital with his dog selling drugs and meeting several marginalised people. Organisers of Locarno said the film was a “hymn to freedom and resistance in Iran”.
Making the film, Ahmadzadeh said was an “act of rebellion”.
“The fact that people are seeing it is an even greater victory for us,” he told online publication Cineuropa.
After the films for the main competition were revealed on July 5, Ahmadzadeh was summoned by Iran’s Ministry of Security, who pressured him to withdraw Mantagheye bohrani. He was then banned from leaving Iran, meaning he could not attend the festival in Europe.
According to Deadline, the film’s international distributor Luxbox Paris, and Sina Ataeian Dena, a producer on the title, received threats urging for the film to be pulled from the festival.
“Ali is under constant psychological torture, and we believe that making all these public might create a bit of protection for him,” Dena said in a statement last month.
“According to what we predicted and agreed on a long time ago we will anyway premiere the film. Standing all kinds of threats and ... accusations became a part of our job, and showing the film is the most important part of our fight.”
Mantagheye bohrani is Ahmadzadeh’s fourth feature.
His others are Phenomenon (1996), Kami’s Party (2013) and Atomic Heart Mother (2015), which was nominated for the top awards at the Buenos Aires International Film Festival of Independent Cinema, the Los Angeles Film Festival and the Odesa International Film Festival.
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Groom and Two Brides
Director: Elie Semaan
Starring: Abdullah Boushehri, Laila Abdallah, Lulwa Almulla
Rating: 3/5
Scoreline
UAE 2-1 Saudi Arabia
UAE Mabkhout 21’, Khalil 59’
Saudi Al Abed (pen) 20’
Man of the match Ahmed Khalil (UAE)
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Profile
Company name: Jaib
Started: January 2018
Co-founders: Fouad Jeryes and Sinan Taifour
Based: Jordan
Sector: FinTech
Total transactions: over $800,000 since January, 2018
Investors in Jaib's mother company Alpha Apps: Aramex and 500 Startups
Zayed Sustainability Prize
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Farage on Muslim Brotherhood
Nigel Farage told Reform's annual conference that the party will proscribe the Muslim Brotherhood if he becomes Prime Minister.
"We will stop dangerous organisations with links to terrorism operating in our country," he said. "Quite why we've been so gutless about this – both Labour and Conservative – I don't know.
“All across the Middle East, countries have banned and proscribed the Muslim Brotherhood as a dangerous organisation. We will do the very same.”
It is 10 years since a ground-breaking report into the Muslim Brotherhood by Sir John Jenkins.
Among the former diplomat's findings was an assessment that “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” has “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
The prime minister at the time, David Cameron, who commissioned the report, said membership or association with the Muslim Brotherhood was a "possible indicator of extremism" but it would not be banned.
