JERUSALEM (JTA) — “Baba Joon,” a Farsi-language movie made by an Iranian-Israeli director and a group of Iranian-born actors, will be Israel’s entry in this year’s Academy Awards.
The film will be entered in the best foreign language film category after winning best picture at Monday’s Ophir Awards, Israel’s version of the Oscars. It also won in four other categories: art direction, music, costume design and casting.
“Baba Joon,” the story of familial conflict among three generations of Iranian Jewish men, was written and directed by Yuval Delshad.
Set in an Israeli agricultural village settled by Iranian immigrants, the film tells the story of Yitzchak, a Persian-Israeli who, like his father, tends a turkey farm in a rural village in the Negev Desert. Yitzchak’s brother, Daryush, has moved to the United States to live a freer life. Their father, Baba Joon, wants to maintain the family’s traditional values while Yitzchak’s son, Moti, struggles with his family’s religious and patriarchal limitations.
