Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

OSCARS

Swedish-Iranian Oscar hopeful hit by Trump Muslim ban

The Swedish-Iranian actress tipped to share an Oscar for best foreign film fears she will be blocked by Donald Trump’s 'Muslim ban'.

Published: 29 January 2017 12:02 CET
Swedish-Iranian Oscar hopeful hit by Trump Muslim ban
Bahar Pars photographed at Stockholm's Royal Dramatic Theatre. Foto: Staffan Löwstedt / SvD / TT /
But Bahar Pars, who was born in Iran but came to Sweden as a child, said she intended to board the plane nonetheless. 
 
“I think I’d rather go there and take that place,”  the 37-year-old told the TT news agency. “I’ll probably get more out of being able to stand there and say, 'You know what? Now I’m standing here on your territory. Fuck off.'” 
 
Pars plays Parvaneh, the female lead in the Oscar-nominated film A Man Called Ove, which stars Rolf Lassgård and is directed by Hanne Holm. 
 
“It’s not at all certain that I’m going to get in,” Pars told TT.  “It wouldn’t surprise me if nobody born in Iran gets in.” 
 
US President Donald Trump on Friday signed an executive order banning people from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Sudan and Yemen from entering the United States for 90 days, regardless of their visa status or permanent residency.
 
The order, named “Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States”, also suspended the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) for 120 days. 
 
Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallström on Sunday called the order “deeply regrettable”, joining a chorus of criticism from world leaders. 
 
“This decision increases distrust and tension between people. Not since World War II have so many people been displaced by war and conflict. It is all countries' joint responsibility to help them, including the United States'. “
 
Pars said that she had taken two months to get her visa to the US approved after applying using her Iranian passport, but she said that after Donald Trump's  “appallingly racist” executive order, she suspected she would not be allowed entry. 
 
“I’m very emotionally upset by this,” she said. “But on the other side, it would also be nice to go there and, if we win the prize, speak to the whole world and say this is wrong.” 
 
The Oscar-nominated director Asghar Farhadi confirmed on Saturday that the ban meant he would be unable to attend the ceremony, for which for his drama The Salesman is also in the running for best foreign film. 
 
Taraneh Alidoosti, the lead actress in Farhadi’s film, on Thursday said she would boycott the awards because of upcoming travel restrictions on Iranians. 
 
According to TT, thousands of Swedes risk being hit by the new law simply because they were born in one of the seven countries named. 
 

OSCARS

‘Another Round’: a spirited Oscar-winning ode to life

Danish film ‘Another Round’ (‘Druk’ in the original Danish), which won an Oscar on Sunday for best international feature film, is a dark existential comedy about the joys and dangers of being drunk, and letting go to embrace life.

Published: 26 April 2021 10:17 CEST
'Another Round': a spirited Oscar-winning ode to life
Thomas Vinterberg accepts the Oscar for International Feature Film on behalf of Denmark.Photo: A.m.p.a.s/Reuters/Ritzau Scanpix

It is the fourth Danish film to win an Oscar for best non-English language film, after ‘In A Better World’ in 2011, ‘Pelle the Conqueror’ in 1989 and ‘Babette’s Feast’ in 1988.

Filmmaker Thomas Vinterberg, who is also nominated for best director, gave a moving, tearful speech, paying tribute to his daughter Ida, who was killed in a car accident four days after shooting began in May 2019.

“We ended up making this movie for her, as her monument,” Vinterberg said at the gala in Los Angeles.

“So, Ida, this is a miracle that just happened, and you’re a part of this miracle. Maybe you’ve been pulling some strings somewhere, I don’t know. But this one is for you.”

The movie is set around four old friends, all teachers at a high school near Copenhagen. Martin, played by Mads Mikkelsen, is a history teacher going through a midlife crisis, depressed about his monotone life.

To spice things up, the quartet decides to test an obscure theory that humans are born with a small deficit of alcohol in their blood, resolving to keep their blood alcohol level at a constant 0.05 percent from morning till night.

At first, they experience the liberating joys of inebriation, before things quickly go from bad to worse. 

But the film refrains from passing moral judgement or glorifying alcohol.

“‘Another Round’ is imagined as a tribute to life. As a reclaiming of the irrational wisdom that casts off all anxious common sense and looks down into the very delight of lust for life … although often with deadly consequences,” Vinterberg said when the movie came out last year.

Vinterberg was devastated by the loss of his daughter, and production on the movie was briefly halted, but he soon resumed shooting.

He said he was spurred on by a letter she had written about her enthusiasm for the project, in which she was to have had a role.

But the film took on a new dimension.

“The film wasn’t going to be just about drinking anymore. It had to be about being brought back to life,” Vinterberg said in the only in-depth interview he has given about her death, in June 2020 to Danish daily Politiken.

Selected for the 2020 Cannes Film Festival which ended up being cancelled due to the pandemic, ‘Another Round has already won several awards, including a BAFTA for best film not in the English language, and a Cesar in France for best foreign film.

The film is carried by Mikkelsen, who previously teamed up with Vinterberg in the 2012 psychological thriller ‘The Hunt’ (‘Jagten’).

In one of the most talked-about scenes in ‘Another Round’, Mikkelsen even shows off his dance talent — the former Bond villain was a professional contemporary dancer before becoming an actor.

READ ALSO: How Danish Oscar-nominated dark booze comedy was inspired by director’s tragic loss

SHOW COMMENTS