TEHRAN- Iranian director Shahram Mokri’s latest film “Black Rabbit, White Rabbit” was honored at the closing ceremony of the 30th edition of the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK), in Thiruvananthapuram, the capital city of Kerala, India on Friday. 

The film received the Special Jury Mention for Technical Excellence, ISNA reported on Saturday.  

The film, which world premiered in Busan’s Visions–Asia section, has been screened in festivals in Saudi Arabia, Singapore, the UK and the U.S. so far. The 139-minute movie is a production of Tajikistan and the UAE and was selected as Tajikistan’s submission to the 98th Academy Awards.

Earlier this month, the movie won an award at the 7th Hainan Island International Film Festival (HIIFF), which was held in Sanya, China.

“Black Rabbit, White Rabbit” deals with three people’s destinies that intertwine through apparently unrelated events.

A director is remaking a classic Iranian film in Tajikistan. The studio armorer is worried that the gun they intend to use is not a prop gun and fears the consequences. A young woman arrives at the location, insisting that she be given an audition. At the same time, in another part of town, Sara, recently recovered from a car crash, suddenly realizes that her accident was all part of a conspiracy. These people's destinies inevitably intertwine.

In this spinning story, Mokri adheres to Anton Chekhov’s principle that every element introduced must pay off – each detail turns into both promise and distraction, its meaning fractured across mirrored scenes, time loops, and reenactments. 

The continuous long take becomes a choreography of precision and misdirection, shaping what is seen and believed. Mokri exposes how cinema deceives by allowing it to perform its own paradox: sleight of hand and its undoing.

The cast of the 139-minute movie includes Babak Karimi, Hasti Mohammai, Kibriyo Dilyobova, and Bezhan Davlyatov, among others.

Shahram Mokri, 47, won the Venice Film Festival's Horizons Award in 2013 for Creative Content for his second feature film “Fish & Cat”. 

In 2018, his third film “Invasion” was screened at the 68th Berlin Film Festival and was nominated for the Teddy Award.

He also won a silver Hugo medal at the Chicago Film Festival in the main section and the Venice Critics' Best Screenplay Award for his fourth film “Careless Crime”. 

Mokri is a founding member of the ISFA Cinema House Short Film Association. He has also served on the association's board of directors for three terms. In 2003, he was selected as the best young man in the country in the field of art by the National Youth Organization. He was nominated for the 2013 Asia Pacific Screen Award for Achievement in Directing for “Fish & Cat”. 

All his films have met with great success, with both film critics and the public. Mokri has also sat on several International Film Festival juries, including the 2021 Orizzonti jury at the 78th Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica, Venice, the 57th Chicago International Film Festival, and the 75th Locarno International Film Festival, 2022.

Renowned as Asia’s best-managed and possibly the most people-centered festival globally, IFFK attracts top films, renowned directors, technicians, and audiences from around the world. It aims to showcase a competition for films from Asia, Africa, Latin America, and select world cinema, along with highlighting Malayalam cinema for international viewers. 

The festival debuted in December 1994 in Kozhikode, coinciding with the 100th anniversary of cinema, screening 100 films. Initially managed by the Kerala State Film Development Corporation, the festival shifted to the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy in 1998, which added a competition section in 1999 after FIAPF accreditation. Held annually in early December in Trivandrum, it features screenings, workshops, forums, and the notable Aravindan Memorial Lecture, drawing thousands of delegates globally.

SAB/