Reza Mirkarimi’s ‘‘TODAY’’, which had its International premiere at TIFF/Toronto International Film Festival 2014, has been selected to represent Iran in the foreign-language Oscar race. The film’s selection was announced this Sunday by Iran’s Oscar selection committee.
The award-winning Iranian director Reza Mirkarimi was born in 1967 in Tehran. His first feature, ‘The Child and The Soldier’ won several awards including the “Golden Butterfly” at the Isfahan International Children and Teenagers Film Festival, Iran (1999), the “Montgolfiere d’Argent” at the Festival des 3 Continents, Nantes, France (2000), and the “Golden Shoe” at the Children and Teenagers Film Festival in Zelin, Croatia (2001). In 2000, he directed ‘Under the Moonlight’ which won the Critics' Week Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival (2001). His other features as writer-director include ‘Here, A Shining Light’ (2002), ‘So Close- So Far’ (2005), ‘As Simple as That’ (2007), and ‘A Cube of Sugar’ (2011). ‘Today’ (2014) is his latest film.
TODAY chronicles a brief but stirring encounter between two strangers : Youness, an ageing taxi driver, takes a young woman to hospital at the end of his working day, not knowing what awaits him there.
« Intimate and understated, Today is a profound testament to the enduring power of empathy and fellow feeling in an increasingly cruel and prejudicial world. With a pair of absorbing performances, Parastui and Golestani draw the viewer gradually in, painting a highly sympathetic portrait of suffering in the context of a seemingly uncaring environment. Mirkarimi structures his narrative with a balanced, emotional rhythm, slowly and skilfully disclosing his characters' backstories as he observes them with the objectivity for which contemporary Iranian filmmaking is renowned. Today is a magnificent example of the power of film, suffused with the deeply penetrating insight of a compassionate and exceptionally talented filmmaker.» [Dimitri Eipides, TIFF programmer]