TEHRAN -- The 3rd Festival of Iranian Films in Zagreb opened on March 8 with a screening of Puran Derakhshandeh’s “A Candle in the Wind”, ISNA reported on Saturday.

Iranian cultural attaché in Croatia Hossein Hashemi, the director of the Zagreb film center, the director of the international affairs department of the Croatian Ministry of Culture, and hundreds of art and cultural enthusiasts attended the opening ceremony.

Speaking at the ceremony, Hashemi said that Iranian cinema communicates with the audience like a simple dream; it is like poetry which focuses on people’s relationships and emotional feelings rather than technique and complexity.

“Female directors are more active in Iran than in any other country. They have made a special cinema in which the social and emotional feelings and problems of women are highlighted. It is a cinema which can be called feminist cinema, with a positive meaning, of course,” he added. Female Iranian director Ensieh Shah-Hosseini, who was also one of the participants, said, “The first film was made one hundred years ago, but I believe it began when man saw his own reflection in the water.”

Derakhshandeh also gave an interview to Croatian state TV in which she spoke about Iranian cinema.

She congratulated all the women in the world on the occasion of International Women's Day (March 8), adding that Iran has a similar day, women’s and mothers’ day, which is celebrated on the birth anniversary of Hazrat Fatima (SA).

She also described her film “A Candle in the Wind”, in which the problems of the youth are examined.

“The problems of the youth inside and outside Iran are almost the same. They are mostly involved with the issue of ecstasy pills and (other) drugs. It is an international issue,” she explained.

She said that there are ten female filmmakers in Iran who are currently making feature films, and in the field of short films and documentaries, there are over 50 female filmmakers.