TEHRAN — Iranian documentary “The Long Winter,” directed by Hassan Jafari, has won the Best Film award at the 10th Eurasia.DOC International Documentary Film Festival, held in Russia and Belarus.
The award was presented at the festival’s closing ceremony in Minsk, Belarus, on Oct. 2, where the Iranian film was named the top work of the 10th edition.
Organized in Smolensk, Russia, and Minsk, the festival ran from Sept. 28 to Oct. 2 and focuses on documentary cinema and films addressing social and political developments across the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States and beyond. The 10th edition featured 361 films from 14 countries in its main competition.
Produced by Nahzat Media and Arts Center and Iran’s Center for the Development of Experimental and Documentary Cinema, “The Long Winter” follows an elderly couple living in a village in northern Iran. As the wife struggles with illness and the couple confronts the difficulties of rural life, they face a difficult choice over whether to remain in their village or move to the city.
Jafari’s film received the award as Iranian cinema is being given a wider showcase in Russia through the Cultural Days of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Russia, a broader cultural exchange taking place across several Russian cities.
An accompanying Iranian film program is presenting 11 Iranian feature and animated films in Moscow, Kazan and Astrakhan, with the Moscow program opening with Rasoul Sadrameli’s “Call Me Ziba”.
The program, presented with the participation of Roskino, Russia’s state organization responsible for promoting the Russian film industry at international festivals and film markets, also includes films such as Majid Majidi’s “Muhammad: The Messenger of God” and Ebrahim Hatamikia’s “Moses the Kalimullah: At Dawn”.
The screenings form part of a broader cultural exchange between Iran and Russia. Hussein Divsalar, deputy head of Iran’s Islamic Culture and Communication Organization for scientific and cultural relations, said during the Moscow opening that cooperation between the two countries’ film industries was expanding, including through an agreement on potential joint film production.
The Iranian showcase follows a Russian film program held in Tehran and Isfahan in June 2025, when five contemporary Russian films were presented to Iranian audiences.
The wider Cultural Days program, running from Sept. 25 to Oct. 6, has brought 168 Iranian artists representing 30 cultural and artistic disciplines to Russia, with events taking place in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Kazan and Astrakhan.
Against that backdrop, the Best Film award for “The Long Winter” gives Iran’s documentary cinema a notable international recognition during an unusually active period of cultural and cinematic exchange between Iran and Russia.