International Filmmor Women’s Film Festival announced that the Governorship of Istanbul banned on Saturday the planned screening of an Armenian-Iranian movie titled “Yeva” over ‘emergency rule and security concerns’, Ahval News reports.
Melek Özman from Filmmor told Bianet that the Consulate of Azerbaijan first sent an official letter to the French Institute, the host of the festival, and asked them to cancel the screening. “Later, they applied to Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, they even applied to the minister,” said Özman.
Eventually they received a written order from the Turkish authorities banning the screening.
Filmed by Armenian-Iranian director Anahid Abad, “Yeva” is about a young woman, who escapes her influential in-laws with her daughter Nareh, after her husband’s death and takes refuge in one of the villages of Karabakh, Armenia, where she has to live in disguise.
The film was submitted this year by the Armenian National Film Academy for the Best Foreign-Language Film at the Academy Awards.