TEHRAN – Iranian-Armenian filmmaker Anahid Abad’s acclaimed drama “Yeva” won first prize at the 1st edition of the New Images of Iran (Nouvelles Images d’Iran), an Iranian film festival in Vitré, France on Sunday. 

Produced by Farabi and the National Cinema Center of Armenia, the film tells the story of Yeva, a young woman who escapes her influential in-laws with her daughter Nareh after her husband’s tragic death, and takes refuge in one of the villages in the Karabakh region. She is a complete stranger in this ballgame and is obliged to live her daily life in disguise.

“Yeva” was Armenia’s submission to the 90th Academy Awards, but it did not make the shortlist.

“A House on 41st Street” by Hamidreza Qorbani and “Villa Dwellers” by Monir Qeidi took second and third prizes respectively. 

“Villa Dwellers” is about the wives of the Iranian army commanders, who live in residential villas for army forces in southern Iran during the Iran-Iraq war. 

“A House on 41st Street” is about a middle-class family in Tehran, which falls apart when one brother kills another brother over a bounced check.

A lineup of 12 Iranian short and feature films was screened at the festival, which was held from December 11 to 15.

The movies were selected by a committee composed of Iranian filmmaker Abolfazl Jalili, Vitré Mayor Pierre Méhaignerie, Franco-Iranian Center director Alireza Khalili, member of the editorial board of Paris-Tehran Magazine Fatemeh Shadman, founder of the Garromedia Cultural Association Laurent Garreau, French literature expert Vahid Yaghubi and French art historian Jean-Claude Voisin.

The New Images of Iran was organized by the Franco-Iranian Center in collaboration with Aurore Cinema, House of World Cultures, Ouest France and World Trade Center Rennes Bretagne along with several other French centers and Iran’s Farabi Cinema Foundation.

Photo: “Yeva” by Iranian-Armenian filmmaker Anahid Abad.

ABU/MMS/YAW