TEHRAN -- Iranian drama Whisper My Name, directed by Rasoul Sadrameli, won the Best Film award at the inaugural International Film Festival of Jammu and Kashmir (IFFJK), while star Amin Hayai was named Best Actor (Male) at the festival, which concluded Thursday in Srinagar.
The film, produced by Maziyar Hashemi, received the two top honors in the international competition at the four-day festival, held Sept. 7–10 in Srinagar, the capital of Jammu and Kashmir. The festival was organized by the Directorate of Information and Public Relations of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
Whisper My Name (Ziba Seda-yam Kon) follows Ziba, a teenage student living in a dormitory who dreams of moving into a room of her own and becoming independent. Her plans become complicated when her father, Khosro, unexpectedly appears after escaping from a psychiatric hospital to celebrate his daughter’s birthday. Hayai plays Khosro.
The film was among seven Iranian productions presented at the festival. Other Iranian features screened included Majid Reza Mostafavi’s Silent (Bi Sar-o Seda), Ebrahim Azizi’s Kill the Game (Bazi Ra Bokosh) and Makan Ashouri’s Corridor, alongside the shorts Suddenly He Rises, directed by Muhammad Sajjad Motahari, and And the God Who Is Near, directed by Mojtaba Darbandi.
The inaugural IFFJK featured an international competition as well as sections devoted to feature films, documentaries, shorts and regional cinema. The festival’s official awards included Best Film, Best Director and Best Actor and Actress, among other categories.
Whisper My Name has also screened at a number of international festivals, including the Warsaw Film Festival, Cleveland International Film Festival and Bosphorus Film Festival.