24 Frames by Abbas Kiarostami + Rawi Hage and Atom Egoyan / بیست و چهار فریم از عباس کیارستمی + راوی هیج و آتوم ایگوین

The 18th edition of the Diaspora Film Festival opens on Thursday, 1 November 2018, with a Literary and Poetic Imagery Evening. The renowned Lebanese-Canadian author, Rawi Hage, reads from his latest novel “Beirut Hellfire Society” and engages in a dialogue with the audience. The evening continues with the screening of 24 Frames the last work of the late Iranian master of cinema Abbas Kiarostami.

Beirut Hellfire Society is the fourth book by the Montreal based author Rawi Hage whose Cockroach was nominated for the Giller Prize, the Governor General’s Award and the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize. In his latest work, Rawi returns to his war-torn birthplace Beirut during the civil war to meet his marginalized outcast characters.

Abbas Kiarostami shot his last film 24 Frames, just before his saddening death. A meditating bridge between photography and cinema, his last work captures the moments immediately before and after a photograph is taken. In 24 tableau-style still images, Kiarostami takes us with him to a voyage to his mystical world of unity with the existence.

The Literary and Poetic Imagery Evening has been programmed in a memory of Levon Haftvan, director, actor, and a Board member of Diaspora Film Festival who passed away in March 2018. The book reading is free and open to the public. Tickets for the opening and other screenings will be on sale starting on October 18th through our website: www.diasporafilmfest.com.