Short Film News (SFN)- The Iranian documentary “I Am a White Mercenary” has won the best film award in the international competition of Cinéma Vérité, the Iranian international festival for documentary films.
 
Winners in national and international sections were announced during the closing ceremony at Tehran’s Vahdat Hall on Saturday evening.
 
Directed by Taha Karimi, “I Am a White Mercenary” is about Saeed Jaf who claims to be a ‘Kurdish Schindler’ responsible for saving thousands of Kurds during Saddam Hussain’s infamous Al Anfal genocide in 1988.
 
The film has been produced by the Documentary and Experimental Film Center, which is the main organizer of the festival.
 
Polish director Marcel Lozinski received the best film award in the mid-length documentary section for “Tonia and Her Children” and Bhutanese filmmaker Caroline Sascha Cogez won the special jury prize of this section for “She Sings”.
 
The best film award in the short documentary section was presented to Cuban director Claudia Alves for “Compact and Revolutionary” and the special jury award was given to Chinese filmmaker Huaging Jin for “Lament of Yumen”.
 
In the national section, Ramtin Balef won the best feature-length documentary award for “Lian River”.
 
Director Mohammad Ehsani won the best mid-length documentary award for “Blue Dome” and the best short documentary award went to “Zaghal” directed by Nava Rezvani.
 
Ramtin Balef and Rashad Balef were presented with the best cameraman award for “Lian River”. Sara Nasrabadi was named best sound recorder for “1030”.
 
The best editor award went to Farshad Ektesabi for “The Secret of a Sculpture” and Abdolhamid Arjmand won the best researcher award for the film.