UPDATE: Wow

The UK has submitted Hassan Nazer’s Winners as its entry for best international feature at the Oscars.

Nadira’s first feature film as Producer, Winners, won the Audience Award for best film at the Edinburgh International Film Festival to our (frankly surprised) delight. It will play in London at the Raindance Film Festival on Saturday 29 October at 8.30pm, at the Genesis Cinema in Bethnal Green.

Other than sometimes making coffee for Nadira and a lot of babysitting, I had no hand in the film, so I feel entitled to say it is most enjoyable on a number of levels. Set in Iran and in the Farsi language (with English subtitles), it can be enjoyed as a simple amiable comedy. But for those with a knowledge of Iranian cinema it is a fest of references and hommage shots.

There is also a great deal of social commentary for those with an eye to pick it out – remember the film had to pass Iranian state censors. The entire basis of the plot is founded on Trump’s travel ban, which led to an Oscar having to be delivered to Iran rather than the winner receiving it at the ceremony.

Then there are deeper levels of observation of socio-economic conditions in Iran – the action centres around children who literally scrape a living from a landfill site – and of the conditions under which the artistic community has to live and work.

There are currently several important Iranian directors in prison – in watching the film, bear in mind that certain visual references were perhaps not apparent to the state censors who approved the script!

All in all it is a triumph for the Director Hassan Nazer. I do commend it to you as well worth watching. You can buy tickets here.

Here is a link to the trailer. At Raindance there will be a Q & A after the film in which Nadira will take part.