Ramin is a young gay man in his 30s who fled the repression in Iran and arrived to Veracruz after traveling clandestinely on a boat from Turkey. While coping with the distance that he has taken with his loved-ones, he begins to discover a freer life here, far from Iran.
Imdb user:
What's amazing about Luciérnagas is how it maintains the compelling story of a drama as well as the realistic ambivalence of real life. The main character is not fully pure or innocent, nor are those he encounters easily divided into villainous or benevolent. I found the character of Guillermo fascinating and his final scene in the film very impactful.
Winner of the Ariel for Best Actress - Mexico Academy Awards
Winner HBO Best Ibero-American Feature - Miami International Film Festival
Winner Best Feature - Burgas International Film Festival
Winner Best Actor and Special Jury's Mention - Mostra Cine Latinoamericana Lleida in Catalunya
Produced by Zensky Cine (Mexico) - Pensée Sauvage Films - Foprocine (Mexico)
In co-production with Haos Film (Greece) - Aurora Dominicana (Dominican Republic)
Associated producer - KinoElektron (France)
With the support of IMCINE / Ibermedia / Hubert Bals Fund + Europe
Invited to Cine en Construcción Toulouse 2018 / Winner Cine + Distribution Prize
SYNOPSIS:
When Ramin hid on a cargo ship leaving Turkey, he never expected to end up in Veracruz, Mexico by accident. Having escaped persecution as a young gay man in his home country, Iran, he suddenly finds himself far from everything he knows, living the life of an exile in this nostalgic, tropical port where his past and future are constantly confronted by new relationships and revivified desires.
Bani Khoshnoudi was born in Tehran in 1977, and moved to the United States during the revolution in 1979. She studied architecture, photography and film at the University of Texas at Austin, and then moved to France in 1999, where she would live until 2008. In 2004 she made the short film TRANSIT (Grand Jury Prize - Premiers Plans Angers, Rotterdam, Sao Paulo Mostra, nominated for Jean Vigo Prize and Critic’s Prix Novaïs-Terxeira). In 2008, Bani made the feature documentary, A PEOPLE IN THE SHADOWS (IDFA, Cinéma du Réel, EDoc, DokFest Munich…) Her first feature fiction, ZIBA (Rotterdam, Dubai, Göteborg, CPH:PIX) was selected for the Cinéfondation Residency of the Cannes Film Festival in 2009. In 2014, Bani revealed herself as the filmmaker behind THE SILENT MAJORITY SPEAKS, a political fresco about 100 years of political revolt in Iran. She was nominated for the Prix Scribe (France) and after the film’s World Premiere at IDFA, it had a second premiere, this time with Bani present at the ART OF THE REAL at Lincoln Center in New York, in April 2014. In 2016, she made the experimental medium-length film, TRANSITS: OUR TRACES, OUR RUIN, combined with live dance performance and exhibited at the Centre Pompidou in Paris. In addition to films, Bani makes more experimental work in the form of video and sound installations. In 2008, she was studio artist at the prestigious Whitney Museum of American Art Independent Study Program in New York. Her work has shown in galleries and museums in Tehran, NYC, Paris, Cairo, Mexico City, Berlin and Rotterdam. FIREFLIES is her second feature fiction, filmed in Veracruz, Mexico.
