Atabai

– Synopsis:

ATABAI is a middle-aged architect who’s been back from Tehran to his home village in Azerbaijan province. Due to his social class and ethnicity, he has gone through failure in love as a young university student. Since then, by bringing prosperity to his village, he has found respect and dignity among the ones who love him. Yet, his sister’s suicide after her forced marriage at the age of 15 keeps haunting him. He takes care of his nephew, Aidin and a garden as two precious legacies of his sister. Despite being busy and successful with his work, Atabai feels lonely and scared to confront love again.

– Director’s Bio:

Born in 1971 in Tehran, Niki Karimi is filmmaker, actress and
producer. She began her work as an actress in “Sara” directed
by Dariush Mehrjoui, that brought her the best actress award
from “San Sebastian” film festival and “Nantes film festival in
1992. She played in several movies for which she was
nominated or awarded for best actress award at acclaimed film
festivals including “Cairo film festival” in Egypt, “Taormina film
festival” in Italy and “Fajr film festival” in Tehran and also
Iranian film Society. She holds 60 acting credits, excluding the series, worked with
splendid directors and received various awards. In 2001, she started film making by
making a documentary about infertility entitled “To have or not to have”, it was screened
at “Barbican Film Center” and “IFC Center” in Uk and many other acclaimed film festivals
around the world.
In 2005 she made her directorial debut film entitled “One night” which was screened at
Cannes Film Festival, Uncertain regards. After that (One night) has been shown in
Production Company: SilkRoad Films
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numerous international film festivals. “A few days later” premiered at “Rome film festival”
was her second film. Final Whistle and Night Shift were also screened at acclaimed film
festivals around the globe. Her most recent film “Atabai” was nominated in five sections
at Fair Film Festival and was invited for the competition at Asia Pacific Screen Award.
Niki Karimi has been among the jury members at several acclaimed and prestigious
international film festivals around the globe. She was jury member at Cannes, 2007. She
was also juror at Berlinale, Locarno, Karlovy Vary, Edinburgh, Thessaloniki, to name a
few.
She has also translated several books including novels and poetries into Farsi. Niki Karimi
has been photographer for the past twenty years and has attended numerous photo
exhibitions.

– FESTIVALS & AWARDS:

Fajr Film Festival, Iran 2020

Asia Pacific Screen Award, Australia 2021

Cambridge International Film Festival, Uk, 2021

Dhaka International Film Festival, Bangladesh, 2022