Media Nest, led by Iranian producer Kaveh Farnam, has produced the film along with PakFilm and Filminiran.
The Iran-Czech co-production Endless Borders, directed by Iranian director Abbas Amini, has won the VPRO Big Screen Award at the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR).
The VPRO Big Screen Award is the result of years of collaboration between IFFR and VPRO. The films selected for the Big Screen Competition are presented to an audience jury composed of five film lovers.
The winner is also given a cash prize of €30,000, half of which goes to the distributor who decides to buy the film.
Endless Borders opens in Baluchestan, a small, scarcely “wired” village bordering Iran and Afghanistan, where complicated entanglements occur when an exiled Iranian teacher finds himself helping a refugee Afghan family fleeing the Taliban.
Ahmad is an idealistic teacher in exile, educating the local community; his partner Niloofar, however, has spent time in jail in Tehran for the very same offence against the State. The disaccord between them is not only social but also personal. Ahmad’s destiny collides with that of a family fleeing the Taliban; soon the intricate divisions of age and gender within that group will trigger other problems and entanglements – including a ‘lovers on the run’ intrigue that fleetingly recalls Murnau’s classic Tabu (1931).
Prague-based production outfit Media Nest, led by Iranian producer Kaveh Farnam, has produced the film along with PakFilm and Filminiran.
Endless Borders is a fifth feature from director/co-writer Abbas Amini, working again with screenwriter Hossein Farokzhad,
Premiering in the audience-oriented Big Screen Competition at Rotterdam, Endless Borders won the section’s top prize.
The film stars Pouria Rahimi Sam, Hamed Alipour, Behafarid Ghaffarian, Mino Sharifi, Naser Sajjadi Hosseini, Ghalem Sakhi Nazari, Latife Zousefi, and Houtak Balouch.
