The Iranian film Delbaran by Abolfazl Jalili won the Golden Montgolfiere of the 23rd Nantes Festival of Three Continents at the closing ceremony on Tuesday in the ancient French city, according to the news agencies.
Delbaran opens with a young boy, running. Fourteen year old Kaim is an Afghan refugee who has found work helping out at Khan's Place, a truck stop close to the Iranian border, owned by the elderly Khan and his wife. Amongst the clientele, an assortment of drivers, traders and opium smokers, is Patrol Officer Mahadavi, keeping an eye out for illegal immigrants but oblivious to Kaim's status. The boy runs endless errands, most of which involve a succession of vehicles which seem to break down or run out of fuel on a regular basis.
Movement is a constant in this film, as Kaim and the other characters traverse the barren but beautiful desert landscape, where the sounds of automatic weapons are always just within earshot. Abolfazi Jalili's characteristically spare approach (most recently seen here in Dance of Dust) is perfectly attuned to this gentle, understated study of the harshness of political exile. Aside from the poetic depiction of the landscape, two things stay in the mind long after viewing. Firstly, Jalili shows that amidst the repetitive minutiae of daily life there is wry and unexpected humor; and secondly that even in the harshest of circumstances, there are moments of genuine human decency. Dedicated to 'all the children of war', the film is fiction based on fact, and ends as it began, with a young boy, running.
The Silver Montgolfiere went to the Indian film Dakha by Ghotam Ghos, while the Chinese film Seafood won Nantes award.
The jury award went to the Japanese film Harmful Insects. The best actor award went for both the Moroccan actor won for his film Awd Al Rih by the young director Daoud Awlad Al Sayyed, and the Chinese actor Ching Taiching for his film Seafood – Albawaba.com
