Chicago Professor Alireza Khatami’s Film ‘Oblivion Verses’ Draws Global Buzz

By Jinghong Chen, Jerome McDonnell
Director Alireza Khatami holds the Best Screenplay prize for ‘Los Versos del Olvidois’ during the award ceremony at the 74th Venice Film Festival at the Venice Lido, Italy, Saturday, Sept. 9, 2017.
Director Alireza Khatami holds the Best Screenplay prize for 'Los Versos del Olvidois' during the award ceremony at the 74th Venice Film Festival at the Venice Lido, Italy, Saturday, Sept. 9, 2017. AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis
Director Alireza Khatami holds the Best Screenplay prize for ‘Los Versos del Olvidois’ during the award ceremony at the 74th Venice Film Festival at the Venice Lido, Italy, Saturday, Sept. 9, 2017.
Director Alireza Khatami holds the Best Screenplay prize for 'Los Versos del Olvidois' during the award ceremony at the 74th Venice Film Festival at the Venice Lido, Italy, Saturday, Sept. 9, 2017. AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis

Chicago Professor Alireza Khatami’s Film ‘Oblivion Verses’ Draws Global Buzz

By Jinghong Chen, Jerome McDonnell
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The Chicago International Film Festival heads into its second week. The fest continues to offer tons of feature films and documentaries from all over the world. Independent filmmaker Alireza Khatami’s first feature film, “Oblivion Verses,” will be presented this weekend. The film of an old unnamed caretaker was awarded the Orizzonti Award for Best Screenplay at the 74th Venice Film Festival in September.

Khatami, a directing and cinema production professor at DePaul University, joins us to discuss the film and how it relates to Chicago. Global citizen Nari Safavi cluees us into more global events to check out this weekend.