19 to compete in Kolkata

Manijeh Hekmat’s poetic, personal journey into the Iranian modern history in COVID time, 19, will be premiered in the main competitive section at the 27^th Kolkata International Film Festival (January 7^th to 14^th, 2022 / India).

The COVID is not only reflected in the narrative of a dying woman painter whose soul comes back home to take a suitcase full of her bittersweet memories, but also in the form combining the sequences shot by the characters with their cells during the lockdown, the footages from the personal and the public archives, and the sequences picturing the main character, Mitra (Pantea Panahiha in a very different role), made by a small professional crew.

In KIFF 2021, Hekmat won the first award in the “International Competition: Innovation in Moving Images” with her highly acclaimed film, BANDAR BAND.