Fajr Film Festival has retained its ’international’ title in the past 25 rounds whereas it hardly has the features of a global event.
The title ’international’ can only be used for a festival in which foreign works compete and the competition section includes films from other countries, said MNA in a report.
One cannot call a festival international merely because it includes sections such as review of works and festival of festivals.
Fajr Film Festival has become a venue for screening films earlier featured in several festivals and other countries. Then, they are shown locally with changes and poor quality.
A review of the past 25 rounds of the festival shows that filmmakers, producers and the entire cast of a film rarely participate in the event or at least attend the closing ceremonies.
This is due to two reasons: one is that the festival is considered of little significance. The other reason is that most foreign films in the event come through unofficial channels. When one refers to a reliable site such as IMDb to seek information on one of the entries or the awards, one will find nothing about their participation or their prizes.
Certainly, no one can claim that this is because of the hostility of foreigners to Iranian cinema.
The other issue is the attitude of the panel of jury towards foreign films which were submitted to the event in the past years. Some of them such as ’O, Brother, Where Art Thou’ by Coen brothers have been totally neglected.
The selection board for the world cinema section of the festival has already started reviewing the entries.
A total of 1,077 feature films, 363 short fiction films, 171 feature documentaries and 24 short documentaries have been submitted for participation in the event.

Shahram Nazeri received Molana medal in Konya, Turkey

Noted Iranian vocalist Shahram Nazeri was awarded Molana Medal on the sidelines of his recent concert in honor of the great Iranian poet Molana Jalaleddin Rumi at the Soltan Valad Hall in Konya, Turkey, the site of the poet’s mausoleum.
Several Iranian and Turkish cultural officials, including the managing director of Iran’s Music House, Hamidreza Nourbakhsh, attended the event.
According to MNA, Esin Celebi, vice president of the International Molana Foundation and a descendant of the great poet, presented the honor to Nazeri and also appointed him as the honorary head of the foundation.
Expressing her satisfaction with the ceremony, she said, “We have gathered here to mark the eighth birth centenary of Molana, whose thoughts center on unity and avoidance of discord.“
She added that the International Molana Foundation in Konya seeks to promote the thoughts of the great poet in the world and Nazeri deserves to be its head.
Meanwhile, Nourbakhsh said that the concert was held as part of programs of Iran’s Music House to commemorate Molana.
He added that the entity also honored two leading artists Nazeri and Keikhosrow Pournazeri for their contribution to Iranian Sufi Music.
Nazeri, accompanied by his group ’Molavi’, performed a number of pieces from Molana’s Masnavi in the Dastgah style (Iranian music system) of Nava.
Molavi ensemble includes Sina Jahanabadi on ’Kamancheh’, a traditional Iranian string musical instrument, Soheil Aminzadeh on Barbat (lute), Hossein Rezaeinia on ’Daf’ (a tambourine-like instrument) and Mohsen Nafar as the group’s conductor.

Closing ceremony of the Tenth International Students Puppet Theater Festival on Saturday in Tehran

Winners of the Tenth International Students Puppet Theater Festival were announced, in five categories of puppet design, direction, play writing, stage design and music, on Saturday in a ceremony at Farabi Hall.
According to ISNA, no entry was selected in the peripheral section of the event.
In the puppet design section, Vahid Shakeri came first for his play ’Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves of Baghdad’, Elham Jafari received the second prize for ’Wet Matches Requiem’ and the third prize went to ’Seven Headed and Seven Hats’ by Maryam Shoqi.
Jafari’s ’Wet Matches Requiem’ was also selected as the top show in the direction section of the event.
Setareh Aminian’s ’Myth’ topped in the play writing section, while Abbas Taqipour’s ’Wooden Horse’ was awarded in the stage design section.
’Wooden Horse’ also received the award for best music.

While the number of historical sites which have so far been excavated hardly reaches 200, more than 700,000 Iranian archeological sites are yet to be explored.
Announcing this, director of National Museum’s Pre-Islamic Era Section, Siyamak Sarlak told Iran Daily that these sites are important since each of them pertain to a particular period of Iranian history and civilization.
Criticizing officials for neglecting the archeological sector and the failure to provide sufficient funds for conducting research in the field, he said that the Archeology Research Center badly needs funds for its research works.
Sarlak, who is also director of the exhibition featuring the historical and archeological findings in 2006, added that the exhibit displays discoveries made in that year.
Describing the excavations in 2006 as extensive, he said, “Due to time constraints, we managed to bring only 200 objects from six provinces to the exhibit.“
These items were unearthed from Sangtarashan archeology site in Lorestan province, Lema Cemetery in Kohgilouyeh-Boyerahmad province, Kangalou in Mazandaran province and Moravvej House in Ardebil province.
Meanwhile, objects from Qazvin and Qom provinces are also on display at the event, he said, adding that the exhibit will continue as long as visitors are interested in viewing the pieces.
Sarlak, who also heads the excavation team in Qoli Darvish Site at Jamkaran, Qom province, noted that the site has been identified as one of the few Iron Age settlements in Iran.
The site, which spreads over an area of 50 hectares, contains traces of cultural eras ranging from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age, he said.
Exploring the site, which is in ruins, will take at least 200 years, he said, adding, “This is while we have been studying the area only for four years.“

A frame from 'In the Valley of Elah'

By all measures, Hollywood has done an impressive job bringing stories about the Iraq war to the screen, even while the conflict rages on overseas and the wounds are still raw at home. With the Vietnam War, major films came well after the troops were home.
So it’s telling that this year’s crop of Iraq-themed films has not connected with audiences, critics and now even the Hollywood foreign press. Dismal box office and mixed reviews were the rule this year. Star wattage and big budgets didn’t make a difference.
According to Los Angeles Times, no high-profile Iraq war film got a Globe nomination for best motion picture, and there were no acting nominations either. Only “Grace Is Gone’s“ score, composed by Clint Eastwood, and its original song, written by Eastwood and Carole Bayer Sager, landed a Globe nomination.
Among the films overlooked by the awards committee are Brian De Palma’s faux doc ’Redacted,’ Oscar-winning director Paul Haggis’ crime drama ’In the Valley of Elah,’ Robert Redford’s political thriller ’Lions for Lambs’ and ’Rendition,’ the anti-terrorist thriller starring Reese Witherspoon and Jake Gyllenhaal.

Soureh Publishing House has recently released two books ’Migration’ by Jahangir Ashrafi and ’Semiotics and Theatrical Performance’ translated by Davoud Zeinali.
The book ’Migration’ is a research work on indigenous Iranian music, which deals with the effects of migration on the evolution of this type of music, Soureh Public Relations Office said in a press release faxed to Iran Daily.
The writer focuses on music of different Iranian ethnic groups, including tribes in Mazandaran, Khorasan, Gilan, Semnan, Golestan and Talesh regions.
’Semiotics and Theatrical Performance’ is another publication by the institute, written by Allen Austen and George Savannah.
The 252-page book in ten chapters is divided into two parts. The first deals with drama, and the second discusses techniques of performance.
The tenth chapter mainly deals with semiotic approach in theater.
Main features of drama, analysis of drama structure, combination of drama and performance, are among the subjects dealt with in the book.