DUSHANBE, October 22, 2012, Asia-Plus – The award ceremony for winners of the Fifth Tajikistan International Festival, Didor 2012, took place in Dushanbe on October 20.
According to the Festival press center, Afghan filmmaker Atiq Rahimi was warded the prize “For Reflecting Real Life of Women under Hard Circumstances” for the film “Sang-e Sabour” (The Patience Stone).
The Patience Stone is a 2012 drama war film. It stars Golshifteh Farahani, Hamid Javedan, Massi Morowat and Hassina Burgan. The film has been selected as the Afghan entry for the Best Foreign Language Oscar at the 85th Academy Awards.
Born in Kabul in 1962, Atiq Rahimi fled Afghanistan following the Soviet invasion. He took refuge in Pakistan for a year and then relocated to France after receiving political asylum.
On completion of his studies at the Sorbonne, Rahimi joined a Paris-based production company where he produced seven documentaries for French television, as well as several commercials.
Taking time off in the late 1990s, Rahimi embarked on his first writing project. His 2000 Dari/Persian book, Earth and Ashes, was an instant bestseller in Europe and South America. A movie based on this book, directed by Rahimi, was awarded the Prix du Regard vers l”Avenir at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival. The film was featured in 50 festivals, winning a total of 25 awards including the one at Cannes and a Golden Dhow award for best feature film at the Zanzibar International Film Festival.
In November 2008, Rahimi won France”s most prestigious literary prize, the 105-year-old Prix Goncourt, for Sang-e Sabour. Described as “sober and alive” by French culture minister Christine Albanel, it was translated into English as The Patience Stone. Rahimi’s fourth book and his first in French, the novel tells the story of a woman whose husband has been wounded in battle in a country resembling Afghanistan and now lies as paralyzed as a stone.
Returning to his native Afghanistan in 2002, Rahimi became involved with the nation’s largest media group, Moby Group, as a senior creative advisor. The group, established by brothers Saad Mohseni, Zaid Mohseni and Jahid Mohseni, owns Tolo TV, Arman FM, Kaboora Production, Barbud Music, Lemar TV, Afghan Scene Magazine, and a host of other media related entities. Rahimi, who divides his time between Kabul and Paris, continues to work closely with the Moby Group in developing programs and genres for its media outlets, as well as helping develop and train a new generation of Afghan filmmakers and directors.
The grand prize for the best short film was awarded to Russian filmmaker Shota Gamisoniya. He was awarded the prize for his film “The Sea of Wishes” – nostalgia for the lost values.
More than 30 feature and short films as well as animated cartoons were shown during the Fifth Tajikistan International Film Festival, Didor 2012, which took place in Dushanbe form October 16 to October 20.
A parallel program included a roundtable formally titled “Cinema in Tajikistan from the Point of View of International Critics: If There Is Hope for Future?”
The Swiss Cooperation Office in Tajikistan and the Open Society Institute/Assistance Foundation in Tajikistan (OSI/AF-Tajikistan) provided financial support for the Didor 2012 festival.
The next Didor festival is expected to take place in Dushanbe in 2014.
