TEHRAN -- Iranian director Ebrahim Hatamikia’s acclaimed political drama “Bodyguard” has won the first prize of the Baghdad International Film Festival 2016, the organizers have announced.

Starring Parviz Parastui, winner of the best actor Crystal Simorgh for the film at the 34th Fajr Film Festival, the film tells the story of a middle-aged bodyguard who protects a politician from a suicide bomber, and then begins to question his dedication to his job.

The second prize went to “Fallow” by director Laurent Vanlancker from Belgium, and “Kingdom of Ants”
By Adnan Osman from Iraq received the Jury prize. 

In addition, in the Short Drama Films Competition section, “Lavaf” by Iraj Mohammadi Razini from Iran won the second prize, while the first prize of this section went to “When the Heron Flies” by Lionel Laget from France. 

A selection of ten films from Iran was screened in the “Made in Iran” section of the gala.

“Mazar-i-Sharif” (Hassan Barzideh), “Mobarak” (Mohmmadreza Najafi Emami),”Third Generation” (Mohammad-Ali Rakhshani), “Looking for Peace” (Mohsen Eslamzadeh), “Parole” (Hossein Mahkam), “Night Shift” (Niki Karimi), “Pruning Season” (Loqman Khaledi), “The Promise” (Mohammad-Ali Talebi) and “Sweet Taste of Imagination” (Kamal Tabrizi) were the films from Iran.

The 2016 edition of the festival opened with “Bodyguard”, and the 7th edition of the Baghdad festival opened with “Hussein, Who Said No”, director Ahmadreza Darvish’s movie about the uprising of Imam Hussein (AS) against the Umayyad dynasty in 680 CE.

RM/YAW