Iranian actress Leila Hatami has won the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival’s Best Actress Award for “Last Step” movie directed by Ali Mosaffa. The festival was held in Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic from June 29 to July 7, 2012.

The 47th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, with four competition categories, took place from June 29st to July 7th this year.

On July 7, 2012, the festival’s juries presented the awards at the closing ceremony including Crystal Globe Grand Prix, Special Jury Prize, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Actress which went to Iranian Actress Leila Hatami for The Last Step (Peleh Akhar) directed by Ali Mosaffa.
Mosaffa’s Film starts with Leili (Leila Hatami) facing the camera, dressed like a woman in mourning, trying to tell someone she can’t even recall his face and bursting into laughter every time the she does it. Then her husband, Koshrow (played by director Mosaffa), who turns out to be already dead, starts spinning out his version of the plot, while he is shown on screen riding his skateboard down a dangerously steep street.

For the rest of the film, this uneasy couple back and forth in time and it is understood that Leili is a movie actress and that her hysterical bursts of uncalled mirth take place in front of the camera and are ruining a scene she is supposed to play in the film being shot inside the film.

The plot of the film is inspired by Tolstoy’s Death of Ivan Ilitch and the end of James Joyce’s “The Dead”.

The Last Step (Peleh akhar)
Directed by: Ali Mosaffa
Iran, 2012, 88 min

In director Ali Mosaffa’s psychological story, his wife in real life, Leila Hatami, pretty much plays herself – a beautiful and gifted Iranian film star. But the male focus of the story is the heroine’s recently deceased husband Koshrow, who becomes the somewhat unreliable narrator of a playful and delicately ironic story about a complicated but loving marital relationship.

Source: ISNA