Iranian filmmaker Bahrani appointed to Venice festival jury
Tehran Times Art Desk

TEHRAN -- U.S.-based Iranian filmmaker Ramin Bahrani was selected for the International Jury for the Venezia Opera Prima competition at the 66th Venice Film Festival that runs from September 2 to 12.

Headed by Ethiopian director Haile Gerima, jury members in this section include Italian director and scriptwriter Gianni Di Gregorio, American director Antoine Fuqua, and British artist Sam Taylor Wood.

Bahrani is of Iranian origin but was born and raised in the United States. He has directed “Goodbye Solo,” winner of the Fipresci prize in the festival’s previous edition.

In addition, two Iranian movies are entered this year’s edition of the festival. “Tehroun” an Iran-France co-production directed by Nader Homayun, takes its title from Tehran’s inner-city slang pronunciation of the name of the city.

Shot on the streets of Tehran, the picture offers a neo-realistic look at Tehran that includes drug dealers and crime.

Out of the competition but closing the section is Iran’s “The Hole” directed by Ali Karim, featuring a man who makes his living pulling cars out of a hole in the road that he himself dug.

The seven competing titles are eligible to compete for Venice’s Luigi De Laurentiis “Lion of the Future” award for first works that comes with a $100,000 prize in cash.

The Venice Critics Week 2009 of competing movies includes “A Rational Solution” by Jorgen Bergmark (Sweden), “Café Noir” by Jung-Sung-il (Korea), “Domanie” by Patric Chiha (France), “Good Morning Aman” by Claudio Noce (Italy), “Like Scampi” by Ilya Demichev (Russia), “Wolves” by Mira Fornay (Czech Republic-Ireland) and “Tehroun” by Nader Homayun (Iran-France).

The non-competitive movies are “Metropia” by Tarik Saleh (Sweden), “The Hole” by Ali Karim (Iran) and “Videocracy” by Erik Gandini (Sweden).

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