2 Iranian movies featured in Sundance Film Festival competition
Many know Robert Redford, the attractive all-American movie star and director, for his roles in movies like "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" along other legends like Paul Newman (pictured at the end of the article). Many others know Redford as an environmentalist, philanthropist and liberal political activist (demonstrated in his movies like "Lions for Lambs"). But perhaps Redford's largest impact on the movie industry is his Sundance Film Festival, which every year turns the beautiful Park City, Utah, into a mecca for independent film makers, film lovers and liberal artists.
This year's festival, from January 20- 30, gets a taste of Iranian politics. Among the 57 films selected for the Competition program (from nearly 4000 submissions), two are made by Iranian directors, and will be screened this week in various movie theaters in Utah (listed in Kodoom.com's events section). "The Green Wave," (above poster) which premiered on Friday at Sundance, is an animated depiction of repression and government-sanctioned violence in Iran against the Green reform movement. Ali Samadi Ahadi is an Iranian director who lives in Germany (interview clip below). The movie's animation work is by Ali Reza Darwish and Ali Soozandeh.
While significantly softer in tone, Maryam Keshavarz’s "Circumstance," a feature about the sexuality of Muslim teenagers in Tehran, has its premiere on Saturday. Ms. Keshavarz, who holds dual Iranian and American citizenship and lives in New York, shot her movie predominantly in Lebanon.
Related News: Robert Redford, along other Hollywood heavyweights such as Martin Scorsese, Paul Haggis, Sean Penn, Michael Moore, Harvey Weinstein, Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola, and several European filmmakers and festivals (Cannes, Berlin) have demanded release of Jafar Panahi, Iranian film maker and political prisoner jailed by Iranian government for his pro-reform (pro-"green") political views.
Redford:
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