Iranian Actress Blogs from the Berlinale for Deutsche Welle
February 3, 2009
Deutsche Welle has the pleasure of welcoming the award-winning Iranian actress Pegah Ahangarani as a guest blogger during this year’s Berlinale. From February 5-15, she will provide her insights and share her daily experiences and her personal photos from the renowned festival and publish them on her Deutsche Welle blog (http://blogs.dw-world.de/pegahs-berlinale-blog). The goal of this joint project is to provide readers with an Iranian perspective of this German institution.
Ahangarani has already taken part in several film festivals during her career. As a guest at this year’s Berlinale, it will be the first time that she will be able to watch the films and interact at her leisure with other festival visitors.
“I was really interested and excited about this proposal from Deutsche Welle. This blog gives me the opportunity to present my personal thoughts and observations to a large audience – and that isn’t an everyday opportunity,” says Ahangarani.
Ahangarani has been featured in seven films, including “Women's Prison”, “Our Days” and “3 Women” and won the Best Actress Award for “The Girl in Sneakers” at the Cairo International Film Festival in 1999. Her first role was in “The Singing Cat” in 1991. She is the daughter of actress and director Manijeh Hekmat and movie director Jamshid Ahangarani.
“We also want to provide our audience with extraordinary insights into the festival activities. Pegah Ahangarani will provide her experiences as an Iranian and open up her observations to discussion,” said Christian Gramsch, Director of DW-RADIO and DW-WORLD.DE. He went on to explain that the DW-WORLD.DE website is currently inaccessible – or only accessible indirectly – in parts of Iran. “It is apparent that especially now those in power in Tehran don’t agree with the content on Deutsche Welle’s website and those of several other organizations,” said Gramsch. He referred to the upcoming presidential elections in Iran and the celebrations of the 30th anniversary of Khomeini from exile.
Around 20,000 film professionals from 120 countries, including 4,000 journalists, are accredited for the Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale) every year. This year’s festival will take place from February 5-15 and will feature some 400 different films. DW-TV is once again this year an official partner of the “Berlinale Talent Campus”. DW-AKADEMIE also offers a training program for prospective festival managers from Asia and Africa.
February 3, 2009