IFFR 1999

Abolfazl Jalili

Abolfazl Jalili retro

Be Careful

A film that was made in 1992 but faced distribution problems is Jalili's most poetic. Almost without dialogue, but filled with abstract sounds and images, metaphors and symbols. About the young Ilia who works in a brickyard.

Dance of Dust

This poetic and experimental film written and directed by Jalili focuses on the teenage Schawan, factory guard and caterer. With its innovative narrative style the film won a prize at Venice.

Det Means Girl

Jalili's most mature film is a very social indictment, in which children earn money for their parents. Don is nine and doesn't have a birth certificate. Getting one is a full-time job.

Jalili's first film tells the story of the young adolescent Milad, whose father, a railwayman, was arrested by the authorities for political reasons. The film is set in 1978, one year before the Revolution.

Milad

Docu-drama which was shown, then re-edited years later in 1989. It's about a young offender, Hamed, arrested for distributing illegal tracts, who has to serve a term at a correctional institution.

Scabies

The director plays himself as a film-maker looking for a suitable kid to play in his next film. When the ideal boy turns out to be ill, an exciting quest ensues through the bureaucracy of the Iranian medical system.

IFFR 2025
30 Jan – 9 Feb 2025