Sarajevo to honour Asghar Farhadi

Iranian director to receive Heart of Sarajevo and tribute programme

by Amber Wilkinson

Asghar Farhadi will receive a Heart of Sarajevo
Asghar Farhadi will receive a Heart of Sarajevo Photo: Courtesy of Sarajevo Film Festival

The Sarajevo Film Festival has announced it will present an Honorary Heart of Sarajevo to Iranian director Asghar Farhadi.

The Oscar-winning director of A Separation, who served as president of the feature film jury at the festival eight years ago, will accept the award in person. The festival will also screen a retrospective of his work.

The irector of Sarajevo Film Festival Jovan Marjanović said: “It is difficult to overstate Asghar Farhadi’s significance to world cinema. His remarkable body of work reminds us that the most profound dramas are often concealed within everyday life. His films do not offer easy answers; instead, they invite us to look more closely, listen more carefully and engage with life’s complexities. We are honoured to welcome Farhadi back to the Festival and to present him with the Honorary Heart of Sarajevo.”

Farhadi was born in 1972 and made his directorial debut with Dancing In The Dust (2002). After success of About Elly (2009), for which he won the Silver Bear for Best Director at the Berlinale, he gained international recognition and critical acclaim with A Separation (2011), which won an Oscar and a César for Best Foreign Film.

After leaving Iran, he moved to France, where he shot The Past (2013), which won Bérénice Bejo the best actress award at the Cannes Film Festival. He then returned to Iran to direct The Salesman (2016) which premiered in competition at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, where it won best screenplay and best actor (Shahab Hosseini). In 2021, A Hero won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival and Parallel Tales, his latest film, screened in Cannes this year.

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