May 17 deadline to vote for Iranian film in National Film board of Canada online competition
An animation work FORBIDDEN TREE by Benafsheh Modaressi, Iranian artist, is now among the 10 finalists at the National Film Board of Canada & Cannes online contest.
The National Film Board of Canada, in association with the Cannes Short Film Corner and partner YouTube, welcomes voters to the competition, now in its fifth year. People can vote until Monday May 17, 2010. To watch Benafsheh's work, click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b50Q93pXMF4
Modaressi's 7-min animation is a brave account of those who break taboos and make a city to revolt. People can support her nomination by pressing "like" or "thumbs up" in the YouTube page (they have to be logged into their YouTube account to vote).
Unfortunately, YouTube is blocked in Iran and those without proxy and anti-filter can't see or vote.
Synopsis: A story of an imaginary city under a harsh ruler. Love is forbidden, and freedom a distant memory. Few people have the courage to stand for their basic rights, they adopt their-selves with the situation and by time they forget about love, their face and figures change, the less they have love inside, the more they look like transformed creatures, some even became animals indeed. But those who dare defy the rules, bring the city-state to a revolt by breaking taboos and falling in love. There would be a hope, a hope to a time when a child gets a taste of freedom by taking a bite from the forbidden apple.
The film has no dialogue and the music is designed to emphasize more on its minimal-emptiness, [because the people are too scared to express themselves].
Bio: Tehran-born Banafsheh Modaressi worked from 1999 as a freelance photojournalist and reporter for magazines such as Paris Match, Die Zeit, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, as well as several local newspapers. Government restrictions in Iran hampered her photojournalism career, so Modaressi obtained an M.A. in Graphics and Design in 2005 then began teaching at the University of Applied Science and Technology in Tehran. She has had over 20 photo and mixed-media exhibitions, both inside and outside of Iran, and her love of photography and drawing ultimately led her to animation. Modaressi started film-making in the workshop of Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami in 2008 and followed his workshops from Tehran to Villa Arson.
