Among the special guests in Florence will be the acclaimed Iranian actress Fatemeh Motamed-Arya, “Simin”, considered to be one of the greats of Iranian cinema, who, after having started her career in the theatre as a teenager, became one of the most famous actresses to come out of Iran for several decades. She has received many awards both at home and abroad and had nine nominations for Best Actress at the International Festival of Fajr in Tehran, and has won the prestigious crystal Simorgh several times. In her career she has appeared in over 50 films, as well as making documentaries about women who love the cinema. She is also an ambassador for several charities, and is one of the most committed personalities on the Iranian cultural scene.
In Florence she will be seen on the big screen in “Tales”, the latest masterpiece by the director Rakhshan Banietemad, and in two films from her early career: “Nasereddin Shah, Actor e cinema” (1992) by the Iranian master Mohsen Makhmalbaf, and “Rusari abi” (1995), another cult movie by Rakhshan Bani Etemad.