Mostafa Keshvari First Feature Film About COVID-19

Canadian Filmmaker Mostafa Keshvari is receiving international attention for his feature film Corona, the first feature film about the COVID-19 pandemic.

Corona will be released on September 1st on all major platforms worldwide

At a time when the Coronavirus was starting to make headlines, fast thinking Canadian filmmaker Mostafa Keshvari was in an elevator reading the headlines when he conceived, then wrote and shot the first acclaimed feature film to address the Coronavirus pandemic and Xenophobia that comes with it. Entitled Corona, the Coronavirus thriller was shot just before the shutdown. Mostafa wrote the script in two weeks, built the set in ten days then shot the feature in two days as the Covid-19 story was still unfolding. Filming wrapped on February 15, 2020. Corona had its world premiere at the Oscar qualifying Rhode Island international film festival on 4th of August 2020 where Mostafa won the Director’s Choice Award. Corona is being distributed by Level 33 Entertainment and will be available worldwide on September 1, 2020 on all major platforms including Apple Movies, Comcast, Spectrum, GooglePlay, Microsoft, Redbox and more.

Mostafa wrote, produced and directed Corona starring Andrea Stefancikova (Promiseland), as a blonde wife, Josh Blacker (The 100, See) as the building owner, Zarina Sterling as a millennial woman, Andy Canete as an indebted tenant, Richard Lett (Never Be Done: The Richard Glen Lett Story, Pay Up) as a white supremacist in a wheelchair and a seventh neighbor, and a Chinese newcomer played by Traei Tsai, of having the coronavirus and likely to infect them after she also boards the elevator. Shot in 2 days in one location (an elevator) in a single take before the pandemic, Corona looks at what happens when seven unlikely neighbours are trapped in an elevator with a Coronavirus suspect; fear and racism spread among them faster than the virus.  

The movie is about fear and “a study of society, people and moral choices, believing that we are all in this ride together.” Says Mostafa. “In real life, everyone faces discrimination, all different kinds, so if I could bring all these people together in the film and trap them,” he thought, “then their true colours would come out.” The actors were given a script but the director also left room for the actors to improvise. “I told them: Imagine that the actual coronavirus is in this elevator.” He wanted the action to unfold in real time. “My struggle was to make sure it was all one shot.” 

Mostafa Keshvari is an award-winning Iranian-born Canadian writer, director and producer based in Vancouver, British Columbia and is a member of Directors and Writers Guild of Canada. As a top graduate of Vancouver Film School he has over 50 IMDB Awards and 4 Leo Award nominations. He started his film-directing career in 2015. His first featured film Unmasked is about women’s rights, mandatory Hijab, and violence against women. The feature explore an immigrant couple in US after the Trump travel ban inspired by Muslim Ban movement around the globe. Unmasked has won numerous awards at international film festivals and is now available on Amazon in the US. 

His first short film I Ran was selected in Cannes Short Corner Film Festival in 2015.  His films mainly explore social issues on minorities and have been featured on The New York Times, The Hollywood Reporter, The Guardian, TIMES, BBC, CBC to name a few.  As the president of BC Minorities for Film and TV Society, Mostafa advocated for diversity and inclusion in film.

Mostafa’s films range from feature-length to short, and animation. As a well-rounded artist, Mostafa is also a published poet and a professional painter at the Federation of Canadian Artists.

Mostafa Keshvari is available for interviews upon request. 

For more information, interview requests and photos please contact: Lesley Diana | Lesley@thepromotionpeople.ca | 604-726-5575

Official links and social media:

GrandMuse Pictures LTD  www.mostafakeshvari.com

Unmasked links: