Winners
In a provincial Iranian town, the children work hard to support their families. One day nine-year-old Yahya and his friend Leyla find a precious statue.
The premise is that the great Iranian director Asghar Farhadi, having boycotted the 2017 Oscars in protest at Donald Trump’s anti-Muslim travel ban, cannot be there in person to pick up his Oscar for ‘The Salesman’.
But the producer bringing it to Iran for him manages to lose it after a chaotic mishap involving a taxi and a careless postman. The awestruck kids attempt to return it to its owner. There is something of a free-spirited innocence here, and the film has something of British classics such as ‘Local Hero’ or ‘Whisky Galore’. A story of magic being found in the most unlikely of places.