“No Date, No Signature” wins two awards at Venice Film Festival

The film brought Vahid Jalilvand the best director award and its star Navid Mohammadzadeh selected as best actor in this category, which had the renowned Iranian filmmaker Rakhshan Bani-Etemad on its panel, ISNA reported.

The drama narrates the story of Dr. Nariman, a forensic pathologist who has a car accident with a motorcyclist and injures his 8-year-old son. He offers to take the child to a clinic nearby, but the father refuses his help and money. The next morning, in the hospital where he works, Dr. Nariman finds out that the little boy has been brought for an autopsy after a suspicious death. Dr. Nariman faces a dilemma now: is he responsible for the child’s death due to the accident or he died of food poisoning according to other doctors’ diagnostic?

Variety has reviewed ‘No Date, No Signature’ as “a handsomely made, exceptionally well-played drama that largely works despite a few significant plot holes.”

The review praises Navid Mohammadzadeh’s performance, saying “all four main actors are in top form, but it’s Mohammadzadeh who steals the show in his scene at the poultry plant, when his desperate monologue takes on an epic, Shakespearean quality as he throws all his physical force into a verbal storm of pained outrage.”

While dedicating his award to the Iranian people during the closing ceremony Saturday night, Mohammadzadeh said “I am proud to be an Iranian, and I am delighted that Rakhshan Bani Etemad as one of the best filmmakers in Iran’s cinema history is among the jury panels of this year’s edition of Venice film festival.”

The festival’s top prize known as Golden Lion went to Guillermo Del Toro’s ‘The Shape of Water’.

The 74th Venice International Film Festival was held from 30 August to 9 September 2017 in Venice, Italy.