''Yalda, a Night for Forgiveness'' ( fa, یلدا، شبی برای بخشش), original title Yalda ( fa, یلدا), is a 2019 Iranian drama film directed by Massoud Bakhshi.

Plot

The storyline of is based on an actual top-rated Iranian

reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early ...

show. In this story, a young woman convicted of the murder of her much older husband faces the next-of-kin of the victim (his daughter), who has the power to grant her forgiveness and save the perpetrator from the death penalty. The young woman must plead for her life, while viewers can vote by

sms Short Message/Messaging Service, commonly abbreviated as SMS, is a text messaging service component of most telephone, Internet and mobile device systems. It uses standardized communication protocols that let mobile devices exchange short text ...

to help avoid the penalty by getting the sponsors to pay for the

blood money Blood money may refer to: * Blood money (restitution), money paid to the family of a murder victim Films * Blood Money (1917 film), ''Blood Money'' (1917 film), a film starring Harry Carey * Blood Money (1921 film), ''Blood Money'' (1921 film ...

. The actual TV show '' Mah-e Asal'' (meaning “Honey Moon”), aired daily from 2007 to 2018 during the Islamic

religious festival A religious festival is a time of special importance marked by adherents to that religion. Religious festivals are commonly celebrated on recurring cycles in a calendar year or lunar calendar. The science of religious rites and festivals is known ...

of Ramadan, and often collaborated with Iran’s

judicial system The judiciary (also known as the judicial system, judicature, judicial branch, judiciative branch, and court or judiciary system) is the system of courts that adjudicates legal disputes/disagreements and interprets, defends, and applies the law ...

, which is based on

Islamic law Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the ...

and includes the " eye for an eye" principle. The film has been transposed to

Yaldā Night Yaldā Night ( fa, شب یلدا ''shab-e yalda'') or Chelle Night (also Chellah Night, fa, شب چلّه ''shab-e chelle'') is an ancient festival in Iran, Iraqi Kurdistan, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan and Turkey celebrated on the winter solstice ...

, an Iranian festival celebrated on the night of the

winter solstice The winter solstice, also called the hibernal solstice, occurs when either of Earth's poles reaches its maximum tilt away from the Sun. This happens twice yearly, once in each hemisphere (Northern and Southern). For that hemisphere, the winter ...

in the Northern Hemisphere.

Cast

* Sadaf Asgari * Behnaz Jafari *

Babak Karimi Babak Karimi ( fa, بابک کریمی, born 1960) is a Czech-Iranian actor. For his role in ''A Separation'', he won the Silver Bear for Best Actor at the 61st Berlin International Film Festival in 2011. Filmography Film * ''Tickets'' (2 ...

* Arman Darvish * Fereshteh Hosseini * Bahram Afshar

Awards

The film won the Grand Jury Prize for the World Cinema Dramatic Competition at the

2020 Sundance Film Festival The 2020 Sundance Film Festival took place from January 23 to February 2, 2020. The first lineup of competition films was announced on December 4, 2019. The opening night film was ''Miss Americana'' directed by Lana Wilson and produced by Morga ...

, it won also the Grand prix Cinéma award of ELLE magazine, Best director award of Antalya international film festival 2020, Best Screenplay at the

Sofia International Film Festival Sofia International Film Festival (SIFF) ( Bulgarian: ''Международен София Филм Фест, София Филм Фест''), also known as Sofia Film Fest, is an annual film festival in Sofia, capital city of Bulgaria, taking pl ...

, Best script in Barcelona international film festival and the circle award in Washington DC film festival. It was also nominated for Lumiere award (equal to Golden Globe) in France and in various categories at the

Bergen International Film Festival The Bergen International Film Festival (BIFF) is a film festival held annually in October in Bergen, Norway since 2000, and is the largest film festival in the nation in number of films. The festival celebrated its 20th edition in 2019, featuring ...

Berlin International Film Festival The Berlin International Film Festival (german: Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin), usually called the Berlinale (), is a major international film festival held annually in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the fest ...

Pingyao International Film Festival The Pingyao International Film Festival (PYIFF), officially as "Pingyao Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon International Film Festival", is a film festival held in Pingyao, Shanxi, China. It was launched in October 2017 by Jia Zhangke, a Chinese fil ...

, and was selected for the

Adelaide Film Festival The Adelaide Film Festival (AFF, formerly ADLFF) is film festival usually held for two weeks in mid-October in cinemas in Adelaide, South Australia. Originally presented biennially in March from 2003, since 2013 AFF has been held in October ...

, Thalin International Film Festival, Warsaw International Film Festival, Brisbane International Film Festival, Lugano International Film Festival, Luxembourg International Film Festival, Helsinki International Film Festival, Vancouver International Film Festival, Cork International Film Festival among others .

References

External links

* * * 2019 films 2019 drama films Iranian drama films 2010s Persian-language films Sundance Film Festival award winners {{Iran-film-stub