News

Iranian producer Elaheh Nobakht, whose credits include “Dream’s Gate,” the doc depicting an all-female Kurdish militia that launched earlier this year from Berlin, has been banned by Iranian authorities from traveling outside the country.

Nobakht – who is a board member of the Iranian Producers Association (Ipa) and of the Iranian Documentary Producer Association (Aoidp) – was stopped by security guards in early August upon re-entering Iran from a film presentation in Portugal at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini airport. The guards confiscated her passport, laptop and mobile phone, according to a knowledgeable source. No reason has been given for this action.

Due to the travel ban Nobakht has been unable to travel from Iran to Armenia’s Apricot Tree Film Festival, where she had been selected to serve as a member of the jury, and to Spain’s San Sebastian fest. Nobakht, who is a fixture on the international film festival circuit,...

Hot Docs has wrapped its 30th anniversary edition, handing out its top cash prize and announcing the audience top picks after an 11-day festival, which presented 214 films from 72 countries at 308 live screenings at venues across Toronto.

Philippe Falardeau’s “Lac-Mégantic—This Is Not an Accident” topped the overall audience poll to win the 2023 Hot Docs Audience Award. The four-part series from the Oscar-nominated director explores the causes of one of Canada’s worst rail disasters and what’s needed to prevent such accidents in the future.

“Someone Lives Here,” by Zack Russell, won the Rogers Audience Awards for Best Canadian Documentary, which comes with Cdn. $50,000 cash, and also claimed the second-highest spot in the overall audience poll. The film also won the inaugural Bill Nemtin Award for Best Social Impact Documentary, a jury-chosen prize, at the main awards ceremony held Saturday.

“Someone Lives Here”

“Someone” tells the story of Toronto carpenter Khaleel Seivwright,...

Hot Docs marked the first film festival that “Silent House” director Farnaz Jurabchian has been able to attend in-person since the documentary made its world premiere at IDFA in November.

For months Farnaz Jurabchian and her co-director/brother Mohammadreza Jurabchian were banned from leaving Iran, which prevented the duo from attending prestigious fests including IDFA, France’s Fipadoc, Brazil’s It’s All True and the Luxemburg Intl. Film Festival.

Iranian authorities considered the international partnerships that both directors formed in order to make “Silent House” a national security risk.

“My brother and I weren’t able to leave (Iran) due to false and unfair accusations that were made against us,” Farnaz Jurabchian said. “We lost many opportunities that our film created for us due to the ban.”

According to Farnaz, Iranian authorities “took issue with our artistic and cultural communication with international platforms (and financiers), which is a necessity...

Visit Films has picked up worldwide sales rights for Iranian director Negin Ahmadi’s documentary “Dream’s Gate,” which depicts an all-female Kurdish militia, ahead of its Berlin Film Festival world premiere.

To make “Dream’s Gate,” which will launch from Berlin’s Generation section for young audiences, Ahmadi traveled to the war zone of Northern Syria where she gained access to the lives of the women in the Ypj, an all-female Kurdish militia within the armed wing of the Syrian-based Democratic Union Party (Pyd).

“Dream’s Gate” is directed by Ahmadi and produced by Iran’s Elaheh Nobakht, whose credits include “The Apple Day,” “Beloved,” and “Silent House.” The doc is a co-production between Iran, France, and Norway, through production companies Eli Image, Ava Studios Paris, Spætt Film As, and Babel Doc.

This observational doc captures the struggles, hopes, and joys of these bold female fighters “for whom the...

Iran-France-Norway co-production follows all-female Kurdish militia Ypj.

Visit Films has boarded worldwide sales rights to Iranian filmmaker Negin Ahmadi’s documentary Dreams’ Gate ahead of its world premiere in Berlin Generation 14plus.

Ahmadi travels to the war zone of northern Syria to follow the lives of the women in the Ypj, an all-female Kurdish militia for whom fighting Isis is a way to escape the restraints of a patriarchal society.

Dreams’ Gate (Darvazeye Royaha) weaves together candid moments between the female soldiers with the brutality of combat and offers a visual diary that examines the role of women in battle...

Iran-France-Norway co-production follows all-female Kurdish militia Ypj.

Visit Films has boarded worldwide sales rights to Iranian filmmaker Negin Ahmadi’s documentary Dreams’ Gate ahead of its world premiere in Berlin Generation 14plus.

Ahmadi travels to the war zone of northern Syria to follow the lives of the women in the Ypj, an all-female Kurdish militia for whom fighting Isis is a way to escape the restraints of a patriarchal society.

Dreams’ Gate (Darvazeye Royaha) weaves together candid moments between the female soldiers with the brutality of combat and offers a visual diary that examines the role of women in battle...

Puerto Rican title ‘The Fisherman’s Daughter’ takes best international project.

Polish director Michał Marczak’s black comedy Certainly The End Of Something was named the winner of the Screen International’s best pitch award at the 21st edition of the Baltic Event’s Co-Production Market at the Black Nights International Film Festival in Tallinn this week

Written by Marczak with Pawel Demirski, the feature project centres on a woman from a notorious Warsaw neighbourhood, who kidnaps a kingpin of the “gentrification mafia” who are destroying her beloved district.

Marczak said he planned “to tell a highly nuanced tale of...

“Increasingly hard for independent filmmakers in Iran to carry on working,” says Elaheh Nobakht.

Iranian producer Elaheh Nobakht of Eli Image has given her reaction to the decision by the Iranian authorities to prevent directors Farnaz and Mohammadreza Jurabchian from attending the IDFA world premiere of their film Silent House.

Speaking to Screen, Nobakht said it was now “becoming increasingly hard for independent filmmakers in Iran to carry on working” on their projects.

The documentary, which Nobakht produced, is screening in IDFA’s international competition and is in the running for IDFA Award for Best First Feature. It tells the...

The Iranian co-directors of “Silent House” have been banned from leaving their country, according to a spokesman for the film, and so will be unable to travel to the Netherlands, where the film will have its world premiere at IDFA, one of the world’s leading documentary film festivals.

Farnaz Jurabchian and Mohammadreza Jurabchian were due to talk about the film, which runs in the main competition category, after the screening on Saturday in Amsterdam, where the 35th edition of the festival unspools Nov. 9-20. The film is also nominated for the IDFA Award for Best First Feature.

Set against the turbulent backdrop of Iranian history over the last 40 years, “Silent House” tracks the fortunes of three generations of an upper-middle-class Iranian family. At the center of the story stands the century-old house in Tehran in which the family lived through both happy and tragic times.

“Silent House”

The filmmakers,...

The official selection of the Baltic Event Co-Production takes place on November 23-24.

The Baltic Event Co-Production Market has set the projects that will take part in next month’s event, set to run from November 23-24, including two co-productions with Iran that deal with the issues of violence against women.

Blue Girl is an Iranian-Luxembourg co-production written and directed by Iranian filmmaker Mahmoud Ghaffari, and produced by Elaheh Nobakht and Alexander Dumreicher-Ivanceanu.

The Baltic Event Co-Production Market runs as part of the industry platform of Estonia’s Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (November 11-27). Marge Liiske returns as the...