International Films, with International Program Directors. September 24 to 29 at the Frontier Homestead State Park & Museum

The 18th Annual Red Rock Film Festival has moved its dates back to September – it initially began as a film series in 2004 in Springdale and now is in Cedar City with several full-length features and shorts of all genres such as dramatic fiction, animation and documentaries. As an international film festival the films are presented in multiple languages with English subtitles and used international program directors Hossein Nuri of Tehran of Iran for documentaries and the Market section and Goran Šporčić from Croatia for the fiction films.

Šporčić who recently won an award for a film at the Lytham Film Festival in England and isfilm instructor said, “Reviewing and comparing the films submitted to this year’s Red Rock Film Festival, I have chosen authentic, surprising and, to the greatest extent, wonderfully acted works with a rich atmosphere that contain different types of shifts.”

This is accompanied by several previewers, and the programmer’s scores only account for 1/6 of the tallied vote and in some cases this committee can out vote the Program Directors. Films selected included features and shorts everywhere from Utah, California, and New York to Italy, Spain and Luxembourg which is where one of Šporčić’s favorite films comes from called “You Kai”.

You Kai is the name of a fictional country the protagonist Hana escapes to as she navigates being a young isolated migrant in a refugee camp. The short fantasy uses animation to encompass her imaginary world. Directed by journalist Frédérique Buck, her publication “I’m not a Refugee” was a double winner of the Letzebuerger Buchprais in 2017.

On similar themes is another favorite of his was Utah Filmmaker Brandt Andersen’s “The Strangers’ Case”. Produced in Jordan the feature film follow five narrative stories of struggle and escape including a doctor and her daughter at an Aleppo hospital forced to make a difficult decision, a soldier witnesses heinous crimes towards men, women and children in service of the Syrian regime, a smuggler in Turkey tries desperately to plan an escape from his country as he arranges for passage to Greece on inflatable life rafts, a poet who has made it to the safety of a Turkish refugee camp with his young family who barters for space on an overcrowded boat, and a Greek coastguard captain who spends his days and nights rescuing sinking lifeboats full of migrants.

Another Utah favorite is Christopher Schlierf, Ben Blaskovic’s “For Eric” about a man who has to face his past in the middle of the Utah desert and encounters old acquaintances and places he once shared with the love of his life.

Hossein Nuri shared “The Strangers’ Case” as one of his favorites, including another Utah Filmmaker, Joseph Adam LeBaron’s documentary short “Whales of the High Desert”. The film explores an Englishman who was reported to have brought whales to Great Salt Lake in the 1870s with a message that we have to keep the real Lake alive that can support the legends.  Mojtaba Bahadori’s “On Melting Snow” is another favorite about artist Sophie Cauvin who takes on a journey to engage with transformed landscapes and reunite these fragmented memories through her art creations.

Nuri has a long history in the arts. As a 17–year–old boy, he was tortured by SAVAK for writing a play in defense of human rights and lost the ability to move his hands and legs. But he didn’t lose hope and continued painting with his mouth. He has held more than a hundred individual exhibitions and received numerous awards in theater. He is also the writer and director of “My Arms Flew.”

He was attracted to the Red Rock Film Festival’s selection progress, which gave submitters a real chance. He said, “Red Rock’s selection system has given logic to the abstract process of judging films, which is very personal and interpretive. The result has been a meaningful move to realize justice for filmmakers who submit their films after the challenging process of production.”

The full schedule of new films premiering at Red Rock Film Festival is listed at redrockfilmfestival.eventive.org/films. Attendees who buy a Pass or Ticket Package will receive a free bonus ticket by using the code RED24SU at redrockfilmfestival.eventive.org/passes/buy.

Passes and Ticket Packages vary from $25 to $100 and include different films, seminars, and other benefits. The Festival runs with different shows and events each day from September 24 to 29 at the Frontier Homestead State Park & Museum on 635 N. Main in Cedar City, Utah.