Bahram Radan

Noted Iranian film star, Bahram Radan will play the lead role in a new film by US Muslim director Ovidio Salazar based on the life of the great Iranian poet and mystic Molana Jalaleddin Rumi.
According to Fars news agency, Radan will play the role of Molana in the film, which is inspired by the book 'Rumi le Brule'(Rumi the Burnt) written by Nahal Tajaddod.
The book, first released in France, was recently published in Iran by Niloofar Publications.
Salazar is planning to travel to the country to write the script for the film which is yet to be given a title.
Alireza Shoja'-Nouri, the film's producer, is to play the role of Shams-e Tabrizi, Molana's mentor. Malek Jahan Khazaei is the film's art designer.
A native of California, Ovidio Salazar, has been involved in documentary films for twenty years. After studying Theater and Performing Art in Los Angeles and New York, his interest in Sufism took him to Europe and the Middle East. He studied Arabic and Islamic Studies in England and Egypt. For two years he produced the BBC series 'Faces of Islam', and has filmed the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca on several occasions.
Salazar had earlier produced a film in Iran about the life of the Muslim theologian and philosopher, Imam Mohammad Ghazali.

A seminar focusing on three millennia of cultural historical interaction between Iran and India opened in Mumbai, India, on Tuesday and will continue for a week.
According to MNA, the event is sponsored by Iran's Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization (ICHHTO), Iranian Cultural Office and Culture House.
Exhibitions on Iranian ethnic groups' costumes, handicrafts and cultural heritage, photo displays on Iranian architecture and gardens, book fairs and music performances are among the programs planned during the event.
A ceremony called 'Iranian Night', music performance, narration and recitation of Shahnameh, an epic by well-known Iranian poet Hakim Abolqasem Ferdowsi, were among the programs on the second day of the event.
As per schedule, participants will visit Aligarh University on the third day, when the first workshop on research cooperation between the university and ICHHTO Research Center will be inaugurated.
Repair of Iranian Studies Center in Aligarh University will begin today while recreational, artistic and cultural programs will be held on the remaining days of the week.

Some 2,586 deciphered Achaemenid inscriptions have remained unpublished due to lack of government funding.
Announcing this, a linguist and translator of Elamite script, Abdolmajid Arfaei told CHN that the inscriptions, a large number of which were discovered in Persepolis (Takht-e Jamshid), have been translated into Persian language.
He added that pictures and texts of the inscriptions, many of which are maintained at the University of Chicago, USA, were collected in a research project and are ready to be published in four volumes.
However, he pointed out that despite earlier pledges by Iran's Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization, necessary funds for the purpose have not been made available. "Several years ago, I traveled to the United States to take photos of 607 of the tablets. The University of Chicago also delivered photos of 34 of them," he said.
The expert noted that texts of 32 of the inscriptions, which were originally deciphered by US expert on Elamite language Richard Hallock, have so far been published in a foreign magazine 'DAFA'.
Over 500 million rials have been spent on the project, but no one is willing to fund the publication of the findings of the study in Iran, Arfaei regretted.

A ceremony to commemorate the late poet Qeisar Aminpour and review his works for children and young adults was held on December 30 at the Eighth Children and Young Adults Press Festival.
In a press release faxed to Iran Daily, the Public Relations Department of the Institute for Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults (IIDCYA) said that the event was attended by Babak Nik-Talab and Mostafa Rahmandoust, Asadollah Shabani, poets for children and young adults.
Speaking at the gathering, Nik-Talab said that the main difference between Aminpour and his counterparts was that the poems he composed both for adults and children are popular.
Rahmandoust, for his part, said that the unkind conduct meted out to Aminpour distressed him.
Also, Shabani also said the grace of Aminpour was that he was involved in both past and future poetry trends. He had a good command of Persian language, he noted, describing him as a social romantic poet.

Hedyeh Tehrani (l) and Hamid Farrokhnejad in 'Chaharshanbeh-Soori'

Concurrent with the screening of 'Chaharshanbeh Souri' directed by Asghar Farhadi in France, the French daily 'Le Monde' wrote that Iranian filmmakers have been able to bring about dramatic changes to modern cinema.
According to ISNA, the daily said that the film is about a young couple on the verge of a divorce. While watching the film, the viewer easily gets carried away by suspicion because of the artistic manner in which the elements of the film are arranged, it said.
The story takes place on 'Chaharshanbeh Souri', which is the last Wednesday of the Iranian year, when people light bonfires and sounds of explosions fill the air. It comes just before Norouz, the start of the Iranian year on March 21.
Le Monde wrote that the film has four main characters. Initially, it focuses on 'Rouhi', a young servant in the house of a young couple named Mojdeh and Morteza.
However after a while, he notices a crisis developing when the housewife becomes suspicious of her husband and thinks that he has developed illicit relations with Simin who runs a hairdressing salon nearby. However, the husband resolutely rejects the claims.
The interesting point in the film is the viewers are kept in a state of suspense which is gradually turned to certainty in the end.
Farhadi depicts the state of a young woman in such a way that she is living in a family on the verge of collapse.
The cast of the film includes Hamid Farrokhnejad, Hedieh Tehrani, Taraneh Alidousti and Panthea Bahrami.

Parvin Etesami

Anthology of Parvin Etesami, well-known Iranian poetess, has been reprinted in Arab countries given the deep interest among the Arabs in her poems.
According to MNA, all her poems have been translated into Arabic by Samir Arshadi, an instructor of Kuwait University's Literature Faculty and published in Arab countries by a noted Arab poet and publisher, Miss Saad Al-Sabah.
Commenting on the issue, Arshadi said that the first edition of the book in 5,000 copies, which was presented at book fairs in Cairo, Beirut, Tunisia, Khartoum and Doha, was well received Arab readership. For this reason Al-Sabah reprinted the book on the threshold of 2008, she said.
Turning to the reasons for the interest shown by Arab readers in Etesami's poetry, Arshadi further stated that the Arab community is suffering from spiritual vacuum and the poet's attention to educational, mystical and ethical issues has a bearing on most of the challenges facing Arab communities.
Arshadi, who is working as a translator for the Arab language quarterly 'Shiraz', has also introduced the works and ideas of many other Iranian poets and story writers to the Arab world.
'Seven Women, Seven Stories', which includes seven works by Iranian women, is yet another book she has rendered into Arabic.

Mohammad Reza Shajarian

Noted Iranian vocalist Mohammad Reza Shajarian plans to perform concerts in the US and Canada with Ava Group in the spring.
Announcing this, Majid Derakhshani, who plays traditional string musical instrument Tar, told Fars news agency that the performance in the two countries was finalized following the cancellation of programs in Dubai, UAE, reported Fars news agency.