The second annual SIGNIS Interfaith award was presented in
the national theatre in Tehran, Iran, on Tuesday, February
10th. The winning film was a comedy, The Lizard, directed
by Kamal Tabrizi, the story of a prisoner who escapes from
custody dressed as a mullah and who changes the lives of people
who believe in him, something of a Muslim version of Sister
Act.
Tears in the Cold
The SIGNIS Interfaith award is a collaboration between SIGNIS,
the World Catholic Association for Communication and the International
Fajr Film Festival to single out films which dramatise values
which are common to Islam and Christianity. The award was
presented on stage at one of the national theatres during
the awards for the international festival and the national
Iranian awards. The jury panel this year consisted of Dr Dominic
Yung, Director of the Hong Kong Archdiocesan Audiovisual Centre,
Hossein Karami, director of Channel 4, Tehran, and Fr Peter
Malone MSC, President of SIGNIS.
The citation for The Lizard and for the two films which received
SIGNIS commendations, Tears in the Cold and Mother's Guests
read: The Lizard combines serious themes with comedy and offers
its characters an opportunity to probe their religious beliefs
and practices. When a prisoner escapes dressed as a mullah,
people respond to him as a mullah and interpret his actions
in the best possible light. The screenplay shows values of
charity and justice where the Quran and the Gospels can meet.
The Lizard
Tears in the Cold is a fine film about the hazards and cruelty
of war. An Iranian mine expert encounters a Kurdish girl tending
sheep on the border mountains. He does not realise that she
belongs to a resistance group. When they are trapped in a
cave by a blizzard, she gets to know the soldier. War is more
difficult when people learn to understand one another.
Mother's Guests is a frantic comedy. It begins with a mother
trying to keep up appearances especially when cousins come
for dinner. It becomes something of an Iranian Babette's Feast
as neighbours put away their grudges, help to prepare a banquet
which they all share and are moved to a greater sense of community,
love and reconciliation.
Mother's
Guest
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