City of Poets wins European Film Award

City of Poets won the award for Best European Short Film on Saturday at the European Film Awards. The film was written and directed by Sara Rajaei and produced by near/by film.

After City of Poets won the Golden Calf for Best Short Documentary last year, the film received another major accolade this past weekend at the European Film Awards in Berlin. “We are going back home feeling extremely humble, heartbroken and full of gratitude,” wrote Iranian-Dutch filmmaker Sara Rajaei, who addressed the situation in Iran on stage following the award ceremony.

The film is a collage of archival material that portrays a utopian city in which the streets are named after poets. 'City of Poets is a chain of images, just like the daisy chain of memories I based the story on. Each frame gives birth to the next and motivates another image to appear', Sara Rajaei writes about City of Poets.

Image: European Film Awards / Sebastian Gabsch