The Spotlight on Italian Cinema contemporary Italian film festival has opened in the Iranian capital and will run until 26 February. For the first time the festival is screening movies in three Iranian cities - Teheran, Kish and Shiraz - the foreign ministry stated.
The festival is being organised by the Italian Embassy in Teheran and kicked off on Thursday at the Iranian Artists Forum, according to the foreign ministry statement.
The first film to be screened was 'L’Equilibrio' by award-winning Neapolitan director Vincenzo Marra, a guest of the festival. Marra presented his film and held a workshop on film directing and co-productions that was attended by experts and "an enthusiastic audience" the statement said.
At the festival's opening ceremony, Italy's ambassador to Iran, Giuseppe Perrone underlined the very strong ties between Italy and Iran in the film sector, the statement added.
Perrone also emphasised the importance of contemporary film production as "an evocative artistic representation of the times we live in," said the statement.
Another six films are due to be shown at the festival - Martin Eden by Pietro Marcello, Mia Madre by Nanni Moretti, Lazzaro Felice by Alice Rohrwacher, Dove cadono le Ombre by Valentina Pedicini, and L’intrepido by Gianni Amelio.
There will also be a screening of La via del petrolio, an historical documentary shot by late Italian director and screenwriter Bernardo Bertolucci in Iran between 1965 and 1966.
Other festival guests include Sergio Toffetti – a member of the Scientific Committee of Italy's public broadcaster Rai's archives management company Rai Teche. Toffetti will be holding workshops in Kish (25 February) and Shiraz (26 February) on Italian and Iranian arthouse filmmaking, the statement noted.
