Sorvino: “this is a world class figure …”
MIDDLETOWN – This is the third year that the Hoboken International Film Festival is being held in Middletown. It’s the 10th year since the festival, created by filmmaker-lawyer-former Judge Kenneth Del Vecchio launched it in New Jersey.
The independent film festival opened to a full house at the Paramount Theater in Middletown for the premier of Del Vecchio’s star-studded feature film “Price for Freedom” based on a true story about Iranian Dr. Marc Benhuri, who helped numerous people escape from Iran in 1979 when the shah was overthrown by the Ayatollah Khomeini.
Actor Paul Sorvino played the shah in the film and, speaking from the red carpet at the Paramount Friday night, he said he has played many roles in his career, but this one had special significance.
“I’ve played Dr. [Henry] Kissinger; I’ve played some other great people like Lowell Myers, the great deaf attorney,” De Vecchio recalled. “I played Joe Torre. This is a world-class figure [Benhuri] and a world famous figure and I felt the onus of doing it well.”
The film festival runs through June 4.
