Director Massoud Bakhshi (Iran) has secured a prestigious festival run for his sophomore TFL Film YALDA: a world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival 2020 (23 January – 02 February) and a European premiere less than a month after, within the section Generation 14plus of the 70th Berlin International Film Festival (20 February – 01 March).
YALDA, A NIGHT FOR FORGIVENESS is a tense drama, set in contemporary Iran. The main character Maryam accidentally kills her older husband Nasser and is sentenced to death. The only person who can acquit her is the victim’s daughter, Mona. She will have to gain her pardon during a pleading broadcast live on the popular live TV show “Joy of Forgiveness”.
Developed in FeatureLab 2016, YALDA had triumphed at the TFL Meeting Event: on top of the TFL Co-Production Award (€ 50.000), the project also won the public over and received the TFL Audience Award (€ 30.000).
Apart from FeatureLab, Bakhshi took this project to the Sundance Screenwriters Lab (United States), Le Groupe Ouest (France) and La Fabrique Cinéma (France).
TorinoFilmLab had previously backed the development of Bakhshi’s debut feature, A RESPECTABLE FAMILY, which participated in ScriptLab 2009 and FeatureLab 2010 and premiered at the Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight in 2012. It is in fact in Turin, during the TFL Meeting Event 2009, that Massoud Bakhshi met Jacques Bidou and Marianne Dumoulin from JBA Production, who produced both A RESPECTABLE FAMILY and YALDA.
The world premiere of YALDA is scheduled for January 26th at Park City. All info and where to buy tickets here.