DUSHANBE, October 31, Asia-Plus – Winners of the Second Tajikistan International Film Festival, Didor 2006, were announced at an official closing ceremony that was held at Kokhi Jomi in Dushanbe yesterday evening.
73 Movies from 13 countries across the world were shown during the Didor film festival in Dushanbe. Works by filmmakers from Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Armenia, Georgia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and other countries were presented in the festival in Dushanbe.
The festival’s program furthers the concept of the first Didor festival, which was intended to be a cultural bridge between eastern and western cultures and remove any critical attitudes of the West to the East and vice versa.
The film festival in Dushanbe brought together many internationally known filmmakers from Russia (Larisa Sadilova), Daniyar Salamat (Kazakhstan), Gel Babluani (Georgia), etc. It worked in several sections.
In the international competition, 10 full-length and eight short-length movies competed for awards presented by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. The full-length movie “Poet of the Wastes” by Iranian filmmaker Muhammad Ahmadi and the short movie “Little Higher” by Iranian filmmaker Mehdi Jaffari were recognized the best in this nomination and awarded $3,000 US each. .
In the Common Heritage section, “New Penelope” by Georgy Dzalayev was recognized the best and received the main ward of US$4,000. The filmmaker originally set out to make a film about Tajik migrant laborers in Russia but in the course of making the film, became interested in the plight of those left behind, most of whom are women. He called his film “New Penelope,” which refers to the wife of the ancient Greek hero Odysseus who waited years for the return of her husband while he was away on his “Odyssey.” Polygamy is becoming a typical and widespread occurrence. “New Penelope” focuses on several women who have been left behind by their husbands, and their many children. The second prize in this nomination presented by Iran’s Center for Documentaries and Experimental Movies, the travel to Iran, was given to Zikriyo Isroilov, cameraman of “Ovora” (Rover) by Gulandom Muhabbatova and Daler Rahmatov.
“Border” by Kyrgyz filmmaker Marat Alykulov received a special prize of US$2,000 presented by the OSCE Center in Dushanbe.
An official sponsor of the Didor festival in Dushanbe was open joint-stock company AgroInvestBonk.
According to the organizing committee for the festival, the next Didor film festival will be held in the Afghan capital city of Kabul in 2007.
