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Winner- Best Film
Ava’s Silence
Seyed GholamReza Nematpour, Iran
Category: Narrative/Drama
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Seyed GholamReza Nematpour
We are excited to announce the winner of the inaugural Ealing Film Festival!
The award of Best Film goes to the Iranian filmmaker Seyed Gholamreza Nematpour.
His film Ava’s Silence, which also won the Narrative Drama category, received high praise from our judges in a strong field of entries from around the world.
It tells the story of a young woman who is running her father’s car repair workshop because of his illness. She is waiting for her brother to return home from military service so she can get married.
This is how Seyed describes the film and its main character…
“The hero of my story is a woman,” he says. “There is a tragic paradox in this character, being heroine and victim simultaneously.
“The responsibility of her own family is on her slender shoulders. And there is a love waiting for her
on the road of life. But love can also be a load or pressure for women like Ava.”
The entries in the Narrative Drama category were judged by Coky Giedroyc, a film and TV director
with many professional credits to her name.
“Ava’s Silence is a very good film,” she says in her judging notes.
“Beautifully constructed, shot, and acted…a powerful, engrossing story with a very surprising end…melancholic and truthful…a great sense of place and time.”
She named it the best drama, and the judges of the other categories were equally impressed, voting it the overall winner of the festival by a clear margin.
Seyed, who is 44, has made fourteen films in a variety of genres. He teaches writing and filmmaking at the Youth Cinema Society in his home city of Khorramabad in the west of the country.
Iran’s independent filmmakers have won a worldwide reputation for the quality of their productions. Their films reflect the lives of ordinary people and are usually shot on location, often with non-professional actors. Over the years, Iranian filmmakers have faced difficulties at home because of government
censorship, sometimes even resulting in arrest and imprisonment. But their work has reached a global audience through international film festivals, winning critical acclaim and many awards.
So, we are delighted to share Seyed’s film through our festival!
See additional photos HERE
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Khoramabad, Lorestan
Islamic Republic of Iran
