Iranian filmmaker Abdolreza Kahani’s Canada-set Mortician has scooped the £50,000 Sean Connery prize for feature filmmaking excellence at the sec
Iranian filmmaker Abdolreza Kahani’s Canada-set Mortician has scooped the £50,000 Sean Connery prize for feature filmmaking excellence at the second edition of the revamped Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF).
Kahani serves as writer, director, producer, director of photography, and editor on the feature, which made its world premiere at the festival.
It follows a reclusive specialist who washes corpses before burial, in accordance with Islamic tradition, and receives an unusual request from a dissident Iranian singer in hiding. Nima Sadr and Mehdi Salar star.
Mortician marks a return to EIFF for Kahani after his film A Shrine, also starring Sadr, premiered last year.
The film was one of 10 feature-length world premieres competing for the Sean Connery prize voted on by the audience.
Joanna Vymeris’s Mother Goose won the £15,000 Thelma Schoonmaker prize for low filmmaking excellence.
”Our two competition winners showcase outstanding work from their respective filmmakers and teams, proving that with formal dexterity, humanity and grace, cinema is alive and kicking,” said Paul Ridd, EIFF director and CEO.
“I am so grateful to all the organisations, teams and individuals who put their hearts and souls into this,” Ridd continued. “These past seven days are testament to our collective belief in the power of film to provoke, to stimulate and to inspire empathy.”
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