TEHRAN – Two documentaries from Iran “Sunless Shadows” by Mehrdad Oskui and “Anticlockwise” by Jalal Vafai will go on screen in the 6th edition of ZagrebDox.

The two documentaries will be competing in the international competition section of the festival which was due to take place from March 15 to 22, but it has been postponed to a later time and will go online.

“Anticlockwise” is about the life of Vafai’s father as a democratic reformist.

“Sunless Shadows” is about a group of adolescent girls that serve their sentence for the grave crime of murdering their father, their husband or another male family member in an Iranian juvenile detention center.

The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) honored “Anticlockwise” with the award for best mid-length documentary in November 2019, and Oskui received the best director award for his documentary.

Vafaei is a film director born in Hamadan in 1982.  After working in various films as an assistant director and an editor, he debuted as a director and producer with his film “Anticlockwise” (2019).

Oskouei is an Iranian filmmaker, producer, photographer and researcher born in 1969 in Tehran. He has studied film direction. His films have been screened at numerous festivals both at home and abroad to great critical acclaim, making him one of the major Iranian documentary makers. 

In 2010, Oskouei received the Dutch Prince Claus Award for his achievements. He is a founding member of the Institute of Anthropology and Culture and has sat on several international film festival juries.

His film “The Last Days of Winter” was released in France in 2013 to both critical and public acclaim. His film “Starless Dreams” was also screened at 2016 ZagrebDox.

Photo: A scene from “Sunless Shadows” by Mehrdad Oskui.

RM/YAW