Remarkable hat-trick of triumphs for Iranian cinema
CANNES, France, May 21 (AFP) - Bahman Ghobadi and Hassan Yektapanah,
joint winners of the Cannes Film Festival's Golden Camera Sunday for their
first features, respectively "A Time for Drunken Horses" and
"Djomeh", are both former assistants of the Iranian veteran director
Abbas Kiarostami.
Along with 20-year-old Samira Makhmalbaf, who won the Jury prize for
her second film "Blackboard", they have achieved a remarkable
hat-trick of triumphs for Iranian cinema. Photo here Feature here Video here
Ghobadi, 31, also starred in Makhmalbaf's film "Blackboard"
which, like his own film, was shot on location near the Kurdish border.
"A Time for Drunken Horses" had already been awarded the International
Critics (FIPRESCI) prize.
Assistant on Kiarostami's award-winning "The Wind will Carry us
Away", Ghobadi made his film on a 120,000-dollar budget using non-
professionals.
The story recounts the adventures of a family of young orphans attempting
to cross the border into Iraq while carrying contraband.
For the child actors, Ghobadi says, "this was not acting, it was
their reality."
Yektapanah, 37, was Kiarostami's assistant on "The Taste of Cherry",
Golden Palm winner in 1997.
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