The principal guest at this year’s Keswick Film Festival is British-Iranian film director Hassan Nazer.
He is the director of the film Winners, described as Slumdog Millionaire meets Cinema Paradiso. It will be the festival’s gala screening on Friday February 24 at the Alhambra Cinema in Keswick.
Winners is an apt name, as the film won the audience award at the Edinburgh Film Festival, plus best film at the British Independent Film Awards. It is now the official United Kingdom entry for the 2023 Oscars.
Hassan arrived in Scotland as a refugee in 2000. After securing indefinite leave to remain in the UK, he went on to study film at the University of Aberdeen and within a few years was self-funding his own films from his base in the city.
Hassan grew up watching lead actor Reza Naaji and dreamt that one day he would get the chance to work with him.
He recalls his meeting with the legendary actor and Reza’s pride in showing him his Silver Bear award from the Berlin Film Festival – an incident that shaped the storyline of Winners.
Hassan’s passion for film shines through and parts of the film are autobiographical and filmed on location in his home-town. He dedicates the film to Iranian cinema and says that Winners is about the love of cinema and how cinema gives hope and makes people dream.
Festival director Ian Payne said Hassan’s visit to Keswick is entirely down to the knowledge and persuasive powers of our festival programmer, David Miller.
“David had earmarked Winners as a potential screening and he also knew that Hassan was based in Aberdeen, where he has family,” said Ian. “As they say, what happens in Aberdeen, stays in Aberdeen but the upshot was that Hassan has agreed to introduce his marvellous film on Friday night – we can’t wait to hear more about how he brought his story to the screen.”
