Kaveh Mazaheri’s Iranian short film Retouch was nominated for not just one but two awards at the Michael Moore founded Traverse City Film Festival. Nominated for the “Audience Award” and “Best Fiction Short Film,” the movie walked away from the film festival as a winner, taking home the award for “Best Fiction Short Film.”
Produced by the Iranian Young Cinema Society, the film depicts a poignant portrait of a woman (Maryam) who has to face the choice of life and death, freedom and captivity in the world where no rights exist.
Retouch has been on a roll, previously racking up awards for “Best Fiction Film” at the Krakow Film Festival, “Best Film Award” at Iran’s 34th Fajr Film Festival, “Best Live Action Over 15 Minutes” at the Palm Springs Shorfest and winner of “Best Narrative Short” at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival.
Kaveh Mazaheri, 35, who is the director of Retouch was born in 1981 in Tehran, Iran. After graduating from College in 2004, he began to write film reviews for a number of Iranian magazines. Shortly thereafter he made his first short film titled Tweezers, which was released in 2005. Since then Mazaheri has created a total of four short films and over twenty different short and long format documentaries. One of his most popular documentaries was A Report About Mina (2005) which won him favorable reviews as a director.
The Traverse City Film Festival which was co-founded in 2005 by Oscar-winning film director Michael Moore, is a charitable, educational, nonprofit organization committed to the idea that “One Great Movie Can Change You: Just Great Movies” and to helping save one of America’s few indigenous art forms — the cinema. The festival brings films and filmmakers from around the world to Northern Michigan for the annual film festival in late July to early August.
With a strong showing at the Traverse Film Festival, Iranian cinema continues to make a strong impact on the international scene.
Below is the trailer for the short film Retouch:
https://youtu.be/9HR594Dzh7k
