The movie also won the award for both Best Director and the Best Actor. The piece, written and directed by Majid-Reza Mostafavi, tells of a teenager who falls in love with a performer who used to be a tightrope walker in the circus but she’s banned due to an order made by the authorities. Her father, is a foreman of a donkey farm, who finds out the donkeys are missing and then he uncovers terrible secrets of corruption.
Estonian “8 Views of Lake Biwa”'s actress Tiina Tauraite took the Best Actress at HANIFF with the film also winning the Jury Award for the best feature-length film.
In the Best Short Film category, “Colombian A Bird Flew” was honoured and Iran director Nasim Forough was given the title the Best Director. The Jury Award for the best short film went to Cambodian entry "The Rubber Tappers".
The Asian Film Commission Network (AFCNet) award was given to Russian film "Liar".
Vietnamese actress Ngoc Xuan received "Promising Young Actress" for her role in the film "Ngay Xua Co Mot Chuyen Tinh" (Once Upon A Love Story).
Bangladeshi's "Red Lights Blue Angels" by Afsana Mimi and Turkish Rahma by Faysal Soysal were winners at Project Market section.
The winning cinematic works stood out from 117 films among over 500 entries from 51 countries and territories.
Taking place from November 7 to 11, the festival is a cultural event, aiming to honour excellent cinematic works with high artistic value, humanity, and creativity as well as encourage new talents and new outstanding works of world cinema. It was also designed as an opportunity to help Vietnamese cinema integrate into the international cinema market while promoting the land and people of Vietnam to international friends.
