Hafez(2008)

Director : Abolfazl Jalili
Country : Iran-Japan
Running Time: 98 mins.

Hafez” won the Special Jury Prize at the Cinema Rome Film Fest

In present-day Iran, studious and devout Hafez (Mehdi Moradi), 17, nevertheless finds poetry as compelling as his studies. Called to instruct the Great Mufti’s young daughter, Nabat (Kumiko Aso), they sit in adjacent rooms and discuss, through a high window in the wall, religion, philosophy and poetry. When she recites one of his poems he looks through the window and they fall in love, but Hafez is reported to the Mufti, banned from the house and Nabat falls sick. Thus begin Hafez’s great trials in the name of love and art.

Abolfazl Jalili

Abolfazl Jalili (Iran, 1957) started making films independently in the mid-70s. In 1983, he directed his first feature film Milad, followed (among others) by Scabies (1987) and Det Means Girl (1994), which won the Golden Osella Award at the Venice Film Festival. In 1998, Dance of Dust, which had been banned from screening for 7 years, won the Silver Leopard Award at the Locarno Film Festival. Other films: Tales of Kish (1999), co-directed with Mohsen Makhmalbaf and Nasser Taghvai and shown at the official competition of Cannes Film Festival, and Delbaran (2001), with real Afghan refugees.

Rating : 7.5/10
video : http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=xpm_R5yRWqU