Two Iranian films to hit screens at Venice Days sidebar
Two Iranian films have been selected for the 22nd edition of Venice Days, an independent sidebar of the Venice Film Festival, the Italian Directors’ Guild announced on Thursday.
The Venice Days program, modeled on Cannes' Directors’ Fortnight, will run from August 27 to September 6 and offers a platform for auteur-driven cinema with strong artistic vision. This year’s lineup features two works by Iranian filmmakers that reflect themes of displacement, memory, and identity, ISNA reported.
‘Past Future Continuous,’ a documentary co-directed by Firouzeh Khosrovani and Morteza Ahmadvand, follows a woman no longer living in Iran as she maintains a delicate connection with her family back home. The storytelling unfolds through a unique form of communication, exploring absence and belonging in a deeply personal way.
Also selected is ‘Inside Amir,’ a feature by Iranian director Amir Azizi. The film portrays a young man on the cusp of emigration, weaving through Tehran’s urban landscape on his bicycle. As he spends his final days with family and friends, the story drifts between the present and “fragments of the past” through flashbacks and phone calls.
Described as a “love letter to Tehran,” the film meditates on the emotional tug-of-war before leaving one’s homeland.
The Venice Days (Giornate degli Autori) section, launched in 2004, has become a hub for bold voices in world cinema. Iranian cinema, often lauded for its poetic realism and social insight, remains a steady presence in European festivals.