The 10th ÍRÁN:CI Film Festival will open the cinematic new year in Prague and Brno in January 2023
After two years of absence due to COVID, the 10th ÍRÁN:CI Film Festival will open the cinematic new year in Prague and Brno in January 2023 with the motto of Women, Life, Freedom.
With nationwide uprisings against the tyrannical Iranian regime shaking the country for 90 days now, the 10th ÍRÁN:CI Film Festival will be dedicated to all the brave women and men who have been risking their lives across the country in this ongoing revolution and will present the best of films by Iranian filmmakers in prison or in exile as well as some of the best works of cinematography that have been banned in Iran for the past 3 decades.
The poster for the 2023 festival was inspired by a picture from one of the recent demonstrations in Iran and is an expression of hatred towards the regime that uses fear and aggression as its last remaining tool of communication with the people of Iran.
The festival will take place in Prague from January 11th to 15th, launching with a gala opening at Kino Lucerna and continuing at Kino Světozor and Bio Oko. It will then move on to Kino Art in Brno from January 17th to 19th.
Among many internationally acclaimed films, the10th festival will bring to the Czech audience No Bears – the latest work by director Jafar Panahi, who is a key figure in contemporary Iranian cinema and is currently in prison.
No Bears portrays the struggles of a renowned Iranian filmmaker who embarks on the nearly impossible task of making his latest film despite the fact that he has been banned from filmmaking. It is a heartfelt statement of intent from a director who is determined to keep the camera rolling. The filming took place secretly in Iran, and it premiered in the main competition at the Venice IFF. Its presentation at the ÍRÁN:CI 2023 festival will be an exclusive screening in collaboration with the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. (Trailer for the movie).
“The upcoming ÍRÁN:CI Film Festival is different to those of previous years. It will bring an insider insight into Iranian politics and cinema, which have been inseparable from each other for the last 4 decades. The Iranian guests who will take part in discussions during the 10th festival will offer audiences a whole new approach to Iranian cinema against the background of the current events in Iran,” says the main organizer Kaveh Daneshmand by way of an invitation to the ÍRÁN:CI 2023 festival.
The ÍRÁN:CI festival was founded in Prague in 2012 with the aim of presenting the best of Iranian cinema to Czech audiences every year. This project continued to grow and has gradually become a platform for other forms of Iranian art such as music, theatre, visual arts and graphic design. The events of the past three years have been significantly affected by restrictions related to the covid-19 pandemic.
