Haj Qorban Soleimani

Noted Iranian vocalist Mohammad Reza Shajarian has expressed condolences on the death of Haj Qorban Soleimani, famed Khorasan ’Dotar’ instrumentalist who died on Sunday.
Speaking to ISNA, Shajarian described him as a national asset, a unique personality in Khorasan music and a talented instrumentalist.
Meanwhile, head of Khorasan Razavi province Music Office Mojtaba Qeitaqi said that altruism, kindness and magnanimity were among the outstanding characteristics of Haj Qorban Soleimani, a noted instrumentalist who played the traditional Iranian music instrument Dotar.
Speaking to ISNA, he further said that high capability in conveying music concepts as well as moral, mystical and religious paradigms was among the other traits of the maestro. He was a model of morality in art, he noted.
He added that unfortunately, not only those involved in Maqami music but also cultural values embedded in this branch of art have gone into oblivion.
Qeitaqi called on cultural officials to pay more attention to cultural heritage.
Osman Mohammad-Parast, a proficient instrumentalist who plays the Dotar also said that Soleimani has a special status in Khorasan music.
He was a committed maestro of Dotar and attached special value to music without attending any ceremonies, he noted.
Soleimani was born in Aliabad village in Qouchan, Khorasan Razavi province and began learning Dotar from his father when he was eight years old.
After his father died, he pursued his interest in the string instrument with the help of instrumentalists Gholamhossein Bakhshi Jafarabadi, Haj Mohammad Bakhshi-Qeitani and Awaz Bakhshi.
Soleimani was a member of the panel of jury at the Fajr Music Festival in 1991.
He died at the age of 85 and was buried in his garden in Aliabad Village near Qouchan.
Soleimani had earlier dedicated a section of his garden for use as a cemetery of artists.

The 26th Fajr International Film Festival (FIFF), slated for February 1-1, has announced the movies which are to be screened in the festival’s special movie section. According to ISNA, the lineup includes some of the latest foreign films, including ’Bordertown’ directed by Gregory Nava, ’Yuma’ by James Mangold, ’On the Edge of a Roof’ by Kim Rossi Stuart and ’The Black Dahlia’ by Brian De Palma.
Other films in the section include ’Lonely Hearts’ by Todd Robinson, ’Maradona’ by Marco Rissi and Alfonso Cuaron’s ’Children of Men’.
Fourteen films are also scheduled for screening in the section ’Festival of Festivals’. Famous US director Robert De Niro’s ’Good Shepherd’ will be screened in the section.
Meanwhile, Iraj Taqipour, the festival’s secretary for promotional affairs, told the same source that four ’Crystal Simorgh (phoenix)’ statuettes will be presented in four sections of photography, poster, thriller and environmental advertisement.
Commenting on the quality of the works submitted to the festival, he said, “Unfortunately, publicity has not achieved its due status in Iranian cinema. However, I hope that inclusion of the publicity section would help brighten up the festival.“
Taqipour also said that 18 posters have been submitted to the festival. These include the posters for the films ’Parkway’ and ’Night Bus’ designed by Amir Sheibankhani and Ehsan Barabadi, respectively.

Organisers of the 58th Berlin Film Festival said on Monday that they will screen a retrospective recalling the impact of the Vietnam conflict on US cinema.
According to AFP, Mike Nichols’ 1970 anti-war film ’Catch-22’ and ’Coming Home’, for which Jane Fonda won an Oscar in 1979, will also be part of the eight-film programme running from February 8 to 15.
Not all the films deal directly with the Vietnam War-Catch-22’ is set during World War II and Robert Altman’s comedy classic ’M*A*S*H’ in the Korean War -- but they were mostly made during the later conflict and reflect a new perspective in Hollywood cinema, the Berlinale organisers said.
They said the retrospective has been timed to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the ’Vietnam Congress’, an anti-war protest in Berlin that became a key moment in the left-wing student movement that swept Europe in 1968.
The Berlinale will open on February 7 with the premiere of acclaimed US director Martin Scorcese’s documentary about the Rolling Stones, ’Shine A Light’.

Iranian films ’It’s Always Late for Freedom’ and ’Workers Are Working’ won awards at Asian festivals--the first success for national cinema industry in 2008.
According to www.aftab.ir, the documentary ’It’s Always Late for Freedom’ directed by Mehrdad Oskoei received the second award in Tri-Continental Film Festival on Human Rights held in New Delhi, India. The film was screened at the inaugural ceremony of the event on January 18. The first prize of the event went to a film from India.
’Workers Are Working’ directed by Mani Haqiqi took the panel of jury award at the Tenth Dhaka International Film Festival in Bangladesh.
The film participated in the competition section and won the most important prize of the event which ran from January 10 to 18 with the motto ’Better Film, Better Audience and Better Society’. This is while a Bangladeshi film received special honor.
Earlier it was announced that 100 films will be screened in 11 sections but only 33 films were featured at the event. Organizers of the festival blamed bureaucracy and lack of cooperation from the government for the problems facing the most important cinematic event of the country.

Artists’ House is holding a three-day educational workshop on children and young adults’ theater.
According to ISNA, the workshop, which opened on January 21, is being held in three levels of elementary, intermediate and advanced in cooperation with Theater House’s Children and Young Adults Association.
Anahita Ghanizadeh, a member of the association, said that about 40 members of the association have so far enrolled for the event.
“Director Kourosh Asadollahi is participating in the first level of the program which ends on January 23. The second will be held after a one-month gap and we will do our best to hold the third level before the end of the year to March 2008,“ she said.
She added that the intervals have been scheduled for participants to rehearse for a number of plays which will be performed after the workshop concludes.
Ghanizadeh said that the association will hold talks with Honar Hall officials to stage the plays after the end of the program, adding that veteran directors have been invited to take part.

Director of the film ’Jesus, the Spirit of God’ says the movie, which is the first to provide an Islamic view of Jesus Christ, was aimed at exposing the ’common grounds’ between Islam and Christianity.
Nader Talebzadeh, Iranian filmmaker sees his movie as an Islamic answer to Western productions such as Mel Gibson’s 2004 film ’The Passion of the Christ’, which he praised as admirable but ’incorrect’.
“Gibson’s film is a very good film. I mean that it is a well-crafted movie. But the story is wrong--it was not like that,“ says Talebzadeh, referring to two key differences: Islam sees Jesus as a prophet, not the son of God, and does not believe he was crucified.
According to AFP, Talebzadeh says he even went to Gibson’s mansion in Malibu, California, to show the Hollywood heavyweight his film. “But it was Sunday,“ he recalls. “The security at the gate received the film and the brochure and promised to deliver it.“ Talebzadeh never heard back from him. Even in Iran, ’Jesus, the Spirit of God’ had a low-key reception, playing to moderate audiences in five Tehran cinemas in October, during the fasting lunar month of Ramadan.
The film, funded by state broadcasting, faded off the billboards but is far from dead. It is about to be recycled into a major 20-episode spin-off to be broadcast on state-run national television later this year.
Talebzadeh insists it aims to bridge differences between Christianity and Islam, despite the stark divergence from Christian doctrine about Christ’s final hours on earth. “It is fascinating for Christians to know that Islam gives such devotion to and has so much knowledge about Jesus,“ says Talebzadeh.
“By making this film I wanted to make a bridge between Christianity and Islam, to open the door for dialogue since there is much common ground between Islam and Christianity,“ he says.
Talebzadeh made his name making documentaries about Iran’s 1980-1988 war with Iraq, an important genre in the country’s post-revolutionary cinema.

Mohsen Vaziri Moqaddam

The documentary on the life of noted Iranian painter and sculptor, Mohsen Vaziri Moqaddam, will be reviewed in the documentary section of the 26th Fajr International Film Festival, slated for February 1-11 in Tehran.
The 62-minute film, titled ’Fear and Fly’, is directed by Sahar Salahshour, reported ISNA.
Sections of the documentary will focus on the works of the artist with a review by Iranian critic Mohammad Amir Mirfenderski.
Vaziri Moqaddam, 83, was graduated in painting from Tehran University’s Fine Arts Faculty in 1948 and continued his post-graduate studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome.
Known as the pioneer of modern art, the artist has so far compiled many works, including ’Style of Drawing’ and ’Thoughts and Works of Paul Clay’.
Vaziri Moqaddam was honored as Europe’s Artist of 2005 in Rome.
The artist held an exhibit at Tehran’s Contemporary Arts Museum in 2004.

An exhibition of paintings depicting the events of Ashura will open on January 29 at Felestin’s Contemporary Arts Museum.
Ashura, which is the tenth day of the lunar month of Moharram, marks the anniversary of the martyrdom of Imam Hussein (AS), the third Imam of the infallible household of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), and 72 of his loyal companions in the plains of Karbala, in present-day Iraq.
Twelve artists will display 12 tableaux inspired by a poem by Mohtasham Kashani at the event, said MNA quoting the museum’s Public Relations Office.
The exhibition will be held after a one-week delay due to the late submission of the works.
Habibollah Sadeqi, Kazem Chalipa, Mohammad Ali Bani-Asadi, Morteza Asadi and Mehdi Hosseini, are among the artists whose works will be displayed at the event.
Felestin’s Contemporary Arts Museum is affiliated to the Arts Academy.