TEHRAN-Four Iranian films are participating in the 26th Olympia International Film Festival for Children and Young People, which is underway at the cities of Pyrgos and Amaliada in Greece.

The feature film “The Apple Day” by Mahmoud Ghaffari, documentary “Alone” by Jafar Najafi, short film “Collision” by Amirhossein Mohseni, and animation “Our Uniform” by Yeganeh Moghaddam are the works from Iran present at the event, ISNA reported on Saturday.

“The Apple Day” tells the story of Mahdi, a first-grade boy, who learns A is for apple on his very first day at school and immediately agrees to bring the class a whole basket full as his older brother Saeed and their father sell apples. However, when their truck gets stolen, the family’s already precarious existence begins to crumble. Meanwhile, Saeed feels responsible to fill the basket of apples promised for his little brother’s class. 

Mehdi Pourmoussa, Arian Rastkar, Zhila Shahi, Aria Mohammadzadeh, and Khodadad Bakhshizadeh are in the cast of Ghaffari’s film that tells the story of a new beginning filled with setbacks and loving solidarity.

In “Alone,” Amir is a 14-year-old boy who lives in a village. After the death of his father, he is in charge of his mother and his 12-year-old twin sisters. The two girls receive most of his attention, especially when he attempts to help them break free from the shackles of tradition.

“Collision” tells the story of Sina a 13-year-old kid, who has been in jail for stealing and hitting a shop owner. He alongside with a social worker go to the owner to talk but the situation gets more complicated than he expected.

In “Our Uniform,” an Iranian girl recalls school-age memories through the wrinkles and fabrics of her old uniform, quite literally. Rather than using paper, canvas, or a digital medium, Moghaddam painted directly on the cloth used for making school uniforms to tell the story of a character who dreams of a better future.

Moghaddam’s self-produced 7-minute animation, have won the Grand Jury prize at Spain’s Animayo Festival and the Best Short Animation award at the France’s Annecy International Animation Film Festival and as a result have qualified for the 2024 Oscars.

Olympia International Film Festival for Children and Young People started in 1997 as a bold and innovative festival that would present quality cinema to children, adolescents and young people, as well as to educators, parents and film enthusiasts, in the small provincial city of Pyrgos. 

After two and a half decades of consistent work in the field of children and youth audiences, the festival is recognized as the largest children and youth film organization in Greece, with strong film and audiovisual literacy activities. 

The festival is specialized in Children and Youth audiences. It has four competition sections: feature fiction films, short fiction live action films, short animation films and documentaries (all durations). 

Having started from December 2, the festival will conclude on December 9. In addition to Pyrgos and Amaliada, some special programs will be held in other cities of Western Greece and in Athens.

SS/SAB