Award: Best Director Award – 5th edition of the Kobani International Film Festival 2024 (Taha Karimi Edition)

Film Synopsis:

Within a night that initially appears ordinary, Hoda silently prepares her final act with emotional coldness and calculated precision. As she organizes a surprise birthday celebration for her husband Ramin, she conceals her true intention: exposing his betrayal with her closest friend, Bita, in a confrontation that gradually transforms into a deeply psychological and existential collapse.

The film builds its tension through silence, waiting, and subtle emotional details, turning confined spaces and restrained dialogue into instruments of psychological pressure. Through a visual language shaped by abstraction, temporal fragmentation, and rhythmic control, the work delivers an emotionally suffocating cinematic experience immersed in isolation, memory, and emotional disintegration.

About the Director:

Armin Keshvari is an independent Iranian filmmaker, writer, and producer born in Tehran in 1989. His cinematic approach is closely connected to psychological and experimental cinema, where visual construction, rhythm, and emotional atmosphere take precedence over conventional narrative structure.

He studied film directing at Sooreh Art University before founding the independent production company AK Motion Pictures, through which he developed several visually driven short-film projects distinguished by their atmospheric and symbolic cinematic language.

Keshvari’s films are recognized for their non-linear storytelling, visual experimentation, and strong emphasis on emotional tension, symbolic imagery, lighting design, and psychological pacing. His directing style often explores inner collapse, fragmented memory, and human isolation through carefully controlled cinematic space.

His short film Death Anniversary was screened at several international film festivals, including:

• Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia
• Puerto Aventuras International Film Festival

where it received recognition and awards related to directing, visual storytelling, and visionary cinematography, establishing Keshvari as one of the emerging voices within contemporary independent Iranian cinema.