TEHRAN -- Iranian films will be competing at various Canadian film festivals in the upcoming months.

“Niloofar” by Sabine El Gemayel and Ramtin Lavafipur’s “Be Calm and Count to Seven” will go on screen at the First Films World Competition Section of the Montreal World Film Festival (MWFF).
A joint production of Iran, France and Lebanon, “Niloofar” is about a twelve-year-old girl, who longs to learn how to read and write, but she lives in a village where education is only for boys.
“Be Calm and Count to Seven” directed and produced by Ramtin Lavafipur will also be screened at the Calgary International Film Festival which will be held from September 25 to October 4.
This is Lavafipur’s debut feature film and it has won several awards at world festivals. The film has not screened in Iran as yet.
Rasul Sadr-e Ameli’s “Every Night, Loneliness” and Babak Amini’s “Angels Die in the Soil” will go on screen at the Focus on World Cinema Section of MWFF.
“Every Night, Loneliness” narrates stories about pilgrims who travel to Mashhad to visit the holy shrine of Imam Reza (AS).
“Angels Die in the Soil”, themed on the Iran-Iraq War (1980-88), was awarded at Italy’s Ischia Film Location Festival and also at the Venice International Short Film Festival in 2009.
Iran’s representative at the 81st Annual Academy Awards in 2008, Majid Majidi’s “The Song of Sparrows” will go on screen at the Out of Competition Section of the Montreal World Film Festival.
The film was nominated for a Golden Bear award for best film at the Berlin film festival in 2008; however Reza Naji won the festival’s Silver Bear for Best Actor for his role in the film.
The Montreal World Film Festival will be held from August 27 to September 7.