IFFI 2023 winners: Persian film ‘Endless Borders’ wins Golden Peacock, Rishab Shetty honoured for ‘Kantara’

The 54th edition of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) concluded with a grand closing ceremony and announcement of awards at the Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Indoor Stadium in Panaji, Goa, on Tuesday evening

Persian film Endless Borders by director Abbas Amini was feted with the prestigious Golden Peacock Award for Best Film at the 54th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa.

The nine-day festival concluded with a grand closing ceremony and the announcement of the awards at the Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Indoor Stadium in Panaji on Tuesday evening.

A total of 15 films comprising 12 International and 3 Indian films competed for the prestigious Golden Peacock.

Veteran filmmaker Shekhar Kapur was the Chairperson of this year’s international competition jury that also included Spanish cinematographer Jose Luis Alcaine, French film producers Jerome Paillard and Catherine Dussart and Australian film producer Helen Leake.

Endless Borders charts the journey of Ahmad, an exiled teacher in Iran whose destiny collides with a Hazara Afghan family feeling the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan.

In a citation, the Jury said, “The film is about how complicated physical borders might be yet nothing can be more complicated than the emotional and moral borders that you impose upon yourself. Film festivals, after all, are about crossing borders and in the case of this film, the director has crossed political borders at the cost of his own freedom.”

Iranian actor Pouria Rahimi Sam was named as Best Actor for his role in Endless Borders. The Jury chose Rahimi for “for the richness of acting and interacting with his partners, children and adults in challenging shooting conditions.”