After Benjamin Ree’s The Painter and the Thief Best Documentary award at last month's London Film Festival  and Victor Kossakovsky’s Gunda, taking the Audience Award in Hamburg, Khosrovani’sRadiograph of a Family is the latest Norwegian documentary to be celebrated at one of the world’s most important film festivals.

The film produced by Norway’s Antipode Films was handed out last night IDFA’s biggest award-the €20,000 Feature Length Documentary Award and €5,000 Best Creative Use of Archive Award. “We were proud when the film was selection for the competition, and are of course even prouder with the awards! This is the second time in five years that a Norwegian film has won this award and it really shows that Norwegian documentary film is world-class,” said Kjersti Mo, director of the Norwegian Film Institute.

The very personal film for Tehran-based director Firouzeh Khosrovani is an intimate portrait of her parents – her progressive father Hossein, who studied radiology in Switzerland and her mother Tayi, a devout, traditional Muslim. Through their story, the director lays bare the divisions in Iranian society, both in the run-up to, and aftermath of the 1979 Iranian Revolution.

The jury said in its statement: “Radiograph of a Family is literally an X-ray of a family. As discontent grows with politics, many people experience their families divided on ideological lines. Through masterful storytelling, Firouzeh shows how history and revolution brought about the political and personal divorce of her parents, a secular father and increasingly conservative mother. The family space changes over time due to forces of the outside world. It’s the great accomplishment of the filmmaker that she so subtly and poetically shows how divided politics can divide a room and change it forever. The fractured body of family life is told through images, photos, and enactments in such a way that the viewer, too, feels the loss.”

Taskovski Films’ managing director Irena Taskovski who picked up the film for world sales at development stage, told nordicfilmandtvnews.com: “I’m very happy for Firouzeh as it’s a great challenge for a female director from Iran to make a film. The two IDFA awards are great first gifts for all the hard work that Firouzeh and her team have done so far. I’m also pleased for the producers-being a producer myself, I know how much passion and dedication it takes to make a film."

Taskovski had worked earlier with Khosrovani on her film Fest of Duty which won an Oxfam award at IDFA in 2014. The sales executive said the film received several offers at IDFA and she was eager to pursue the negotiations after the double win.

The film was produced by Bård Kjøge Rønning and Fabien Greenberg of Antipode Films, in co-production with Storyline in Norway, Rainy Pictures in Iran and DV Films in Switzerland, with co-financing from ZDF/ARTE, RTS in Switzerland, support from Norway’s Fritt Ord, the Arts Council Norway, Viken filmsenter and DFA Bertha Fund.

The film is screening at Oslo’s Film fra Sør Festival which opened yesterday and runs until December 6.