The international jury, consisting of luminaries from the film fraternity, announced the recipients at a glittering closing ceremony at Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Stadium in Goa.
The coveted 'Golden Peacock' for Best Film was conferred upon the Persian masterpiece, 'Endless Borders,' directed by Abbas Amini. An emotionally charged narrative set against the backdrop of an Iranian teacher's odyssey amidst the turmoil ignited by the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan, the film intricately delves into the complexities of prejudice, moral dilemmas, and forbidden love. The jury praised the film's ability to transcend physical and emotional borders, lauding director Abbas Amini's courageous storytelling.
In a citation, the Jury said, “the film is about how complicated physical borders might be yet nothing can be more complicated than the emotional and moral borders that you impose upon yourself. Film festivals, after all, are about crossing borders and in the case of this film, the director has crossed political borders at the cost of his own freedom.”
The film chronicles the journey of Ahmad, an exiled Iranian teacher in a poor village of Iran close to the Afghan border. The rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan has reignited the fire of ethnic and tribal wars. The Hazara Afghans, who are under immediate threat from the Taliban, enter Iran illegally. When Ahmad gets acquainted with a Hazara family from Afghanistan, he sees the real face of prejudice and dogmatism in the region. A forbidden love makes him act and discover the lack of love and bravery in his own life.
The jury for this year comprised of veterans in the cinema industry such as Indian filmmaker Shekhar Kapoor, the Chairperson of the Jury, Spanish Cinematographer Jose Luis Alcaine, French film producers Jerome Paillard and Catherine Dussart and Australian film producer Helen Leake.
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