TEHRAN -- “Lonely Tune of Tehran” by Saman Salur received the jury’s special award at Georgia’s Batumi International Film Festival.

The film was an entry in the non-competition screenings section of the festival that ran from October 23 to 29. The Iranian dark comedy is about a war veteran and a telecommunications engineer who are forced to earn a living by illegally installing satellite TV dishes in Tehran.
A total of 55 films took part in the following sections of competition; meet the jury, Silk Road / Georgia, non-competition screenings, retrospectives. “Three Women” by Manijeh Hekmat was another entry to the competition section of the gala.
The festival opened with “Katyn” by Andrzej Vajda and closed with “Promise Me” by Emir Kusturica.
Jury’s grand prize went to “Klass” (The Class) by Ilmar Raag from Estonia. An average guy from an Estonian high school decides to defend his bullied classmate. This starts a war between him and the informal leader of the class. As teenagers’ honor is a touchy thing, everything ends in bloodshed.
“Lonely Tune of Tehran” was also an entry in the Directors’ Fortnight section of the 60th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in May 2008.