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| Zar Amir presented Golshifteh Farahani with her award Photo: Edoardo Nerboni/Locarno Film Festival/Ti-Press |
Armenia-born director Tamara Stepanyan’s In The Land Of Arto opened the Locarno Film Festival this week with a screening in the lake town’s impressive Piazza Grande.
Iranian-born star Golshifteh Farahani (About Elly, Paterson) was presented with the Excellence Award Davide Campari on opening night by fellow Iranian actor Zar Amir – who co-stars in the opening film.
Amir said: “Thank you for being my soul sister, for being there for me and everyone who needs you every single moment of your life. You inspire us, all of us, me and many others, every single moment you exist. I love you.”
An emotional Farahani – who will present her latest film, Julie Ducarnau’s Alpha later in the week – told the packed audience: “I thought this prize should go to you, to all of us, to us, in this obscure, dark world. We still believe in art and culture. We take refuge in cinema. We watch movies, movies in which everyone is included. We feel love, anger, jealousy, no matter which side of the frontier we live on, no matter which God we believe in, no matter where we pray, no matter which nationality we are. We watch movies from all over the world, especially in Locarno. And this is where humanity somehow comes together.
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| Camille Cottin and Zar Amir as Céline and Arsine in In The Land Of Arto Photo: © LE PAYS D’ARTO 2025 – LA HUIT – PAN CINEMA – VISAN |
“I think really this excellence prize goes to all of you. Each of you is a candle in this darkness. We are here celebrating human values in grace and dignity. Thank you for being here. Thank you for being such a great light in this dark world, because now we are shining very, very bright. And we will change this world through art, through culture. We will do it all together.”
Ahead of the opening film, the festival also presented short film An Unfinished Room… – a tribute to the late filmmaker David Lynch. The film, edited by Duwayne Dunham, who was mentored by Lynch and who will premiere his out-of-competition debut Legend Of The Happy Worker later this week, features Lynch discussing his work alongside clips.
Festival director Giona A. Nazzaro noted ahead of the surprise screening that it was in memory of someone who “left an indelible mark” on cinema, adding: “His contribution to beauty, dreams, and art will never be forgotten”.
Stepanyan’s drama – the evening’s main event – tells the story of Frenchwoman Céline (Camile Cottin), who discovers her husband was not who she thought she was after heading to Armenia to retrieve his documents after his death. It’s a revelation that takes her on a road-tri, along with a new-found friend Arsine (Amir) to the contested Karabakh region as she tries to lay the ghosts of the past to rest.
Speaking at the press conference at the Swiss festival yesterday, the director said she started preparing the film “when I was pregnant with my eldest daughter, who is 11 today”. She said: “At one point, history caught up with us, so there were several wars, several tragedies.”
Stepanyan added: “It was interesting because it's a bit like gestation. So a baby takes nine months, and for me, this film took 10 years. That happens too.”
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| Denis Lavant plays a veteran driven to madness in In The Land Of Arto Photo: Le Pays d'Arto_4__Copyright-LE PAYS D’ARTO 2025 – LA HUIT – PAN CINEMA – VISAN |
On her approach to her main protagonist, she said: “I wanted Céline to discover Armenia. But not as a tourist. As someone who lived with an Armenian for 20 years. What does that mean? She knew a lot about Armenia but she never went to Armenia because Arto didn't want to because of his trauma. And at Arto's moment of death, Céline takes this liberty to do something she would never have done.”
Speaking about the character of Arsine, the director says she wanted someone who dared to speak out and be a rule-breaker but who was also fragile at the same time.
It was an opportunity that saw Amir leap at the chance. She recalled: “I instantly loved it. I asked my agent to arrange this meeting with Tamara for half an hour. It lasted three hours.”
For his part, Denis Lavant – who has an intense cameo towards the end of the film – was friends with Hovnatan Avedikian, who plays the ghost of Arto, who contacted him about the role.
He said: “This kind of thing excites me, having to deal with such a character and then in the context of this film. I found the script admirable. I think what I was dreading was to play a role that only lasts one day. On the contrary, I love it; it's a lot of work to focus on one day.”
He added that the “madness” of his character was important “because war, whatever it may be, shifts, it distorts values.It distorts personality. So he's a character who no longer even has a linguistic identity since he speaks all the languages of the countries in conflict”.
The festival, which runs until August 16, will see 18 films compete in the International Competition for the Golden Leopard.
