Avalanche

This is the second feature film by Morteza Farshbaf, who won the New Currents Award at the Busan International Film Festival with his debut film Mourning. One of the judges, director Yonfan, had commented that he "set a new standard in poetic films." In his second film, he utilizes the language he created, especially his use of sound, to approach a more perfect film world, or real world. The story is about Homa, a seasoned nurse with decades of experience, who is asked to be an exclusive nurse to the hospital director's mother, who is in critical condition. During the ten days, the area is beset with endless snow due to climate changes and Homa suffers from unprecedented insomnia. The film depicts how Homa slowly creates an irrational cage for herself by reacting sensitively, not to the aftermath of a specific and obvious event, but to trivial and small changes in daily life. A 30-year acting veteran, actress Fatemeh Motamed-Aria, and her husband both in film and real life, Ahmad Hamed, contribute to the paralyzing presence of the film. (Busan International Film Festival)