TINAR

by Mahdi Moniri
72’, Iran, 2009
Italian premiere
A child sings sweetly as he holds a little calf next to him, kisses it and caresses its head. Four seasons in the life of a young Galesh, as the shepherds who live in the mountains and forests of northern Iran are called. Little Ghasem, eleven years old, is a shepherd, because this is his father’s will. This means that for most of his time during the year he must remain alone in the forest, with only the company of a few animals. He plays with them as he would with his brothers, whom he rarely sees. His father remarried after the death of his mother, and now lives with his new family in the city, leaving Ghasem and his elder brother in the mountains with the animals, as though they were bad memories of an earlier life. When summer turns to fall, Ghasem’s contact with the world becomes even less frequent, and so he sings, comforting himself with the sound of his own voice. In winter, while it snows outside, as he warms his hands he whispers that he would like to have a mother, some- one to take care of him because, after all, he is only a child.

	Mahdi Moniri Mahdi Moniri was born in Babol (Iran) in 1975. In 2003 he earned a diploma in directing from the IRB College. He works as a documentary director in Iran. With Tinar he won the UNESCO prize at the second edition of the Asia Pacific Screen Awards in Australia.