15/04/2013 - Screening his latest feature The Gardener in a five-film retrospective, Iranian director Mohsen Makmalbaf will be guest of honour at the Norwegian showcase

Lauching its 14^th edition today (April 15), Norway’s Kosmorama Trondheim International Film Festival will feature a major symposium on Iran, organised with Norway’s University of Science and Technology – “a country with severe limitations when it comes to freedom of speech and human rights, but also one of the most interesting film nations in the last 20 years”.

Screening his latest feature, The Gardener (2012), in a five-film retrospective, Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf will attend the programme (April 20) with producers Bahman Ghobadi, Maysam Makhmalbaf, director/actress Susan Taslimi and Professors Hamid Dabashi and Hamid Naficy.

On the opening night, Kosmorama will for the tenth time present the annual Cannon awards in 12 categories, decided by the filmmakers’ unions. Top nominée is Norwegian director Dag Johan Haugerud’s I Belong, with 11 nominations; Haugerud’s first feature was last week (April 10) named Best Film 2012 by the Norwegian Critics Association.

94 films from 35 countries – “9,200 minutes=154 hours of screening time” are waiting for the 21,000 expected spectators, including 14 contenders in the New Directors to Watch (for filmmakers with no more than three films to their backs), and a section with woman stories celebrating the 100^th anniversary of Norwegian women’s right to vote.

Austrian director Ulrich Seidl’s Paradise trilogy – Love, Faith, Hope (2012-2013) – will be on show in full; in collaboration with UK directors Tilda Swinton and Mark Cousin’s 8 1Ž2 Foundation, Kosmorama will unspool a special children’s programme; it will also repeat last year’s success of culinary cinema, adding a cooking class after the screening of US director Jason Wolos’ Trattoria.