TEHRAN – Iranian director Ebrahim Hatamikia’s acclaimed political drama “Bodyguard” opened the Baghdad International Film Festival 2016 on Saturday.

Hatamikia, who was attending the opening ceremony, expressed satisfaction that his film was shown at the festival, and said that he is happy to see his film has received a warm welcome from the audience, the Persian service of IRNA reported on Sunday.

Starring Parviz Parastui, winner of the best actor Crystal Simorgh for the film at the 34th Fajr Film Festival, the film is 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.

A selection of ten films from Iran will be competing with over 100 films from 50 countries in the official competition section.

“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) are the films from Iran.

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