Fortissimo Films, the Netherlands-based film production and distribution company, has clinched global rights to Majid Majidi’s ’The Song of Sparrows’, which earned Reza Naji the Silver Bear for best actor at the 58th Berlin International Film festival, known as Berlinale.
Prior to its win at the Berlinale, the film also took the best director, editing, original score and makeup prizes at the recently concluded 26th Fajr International Film Festival, reported MNA quoting ScreenDaily.com.
’The Song of the Sparrows’ is the story of Karim, who enjoys his work as chief ostrich wrangler at a rural ranch in Shahriar, west of Tehran. He is a loving husband and father of three who is fired from his job when one of the birds runs off into the hills.
Karim commutes to the city and his efforts to help his family lead to succession of problems.
“We were utterly charmed by this humorous and humanistic film. It is an audience-pleaser that leaves everyone with a smile afterwards,“ Fortissimo Films’ acquisition consultant Ellis Driessen said.
Majidi, who has ’The Color of God’, ’Baran’, ’Father’ and ’The Willow Tree ’ to his credit, is the first Iranian Oscar nominated director for ’Children of Heaven’.
Fortissimo Films is a multi-national film production, sales and distribution company. The company has been behind such East Asian films as Wong Kar-wai’s ’In the Mood for Love’.

Research Center for Language and Dialect of Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization and Tehran University’s Oriental Studies Center signed a memorandum of understanding in line with UNESCO’s programs to save endangered vernaculars.
Head of Research Center for Language and Dialect Abolqasem Esmaeilpour told CHN that the deal will enable the university’s students to travel to different parts of the country with assistance from the institute to conduct research on dialects which are at risk of extinction.
In addition, the entity will grant Iranian students scholarship to study dialectology course in London University, he said.
Research Center for Language and Dialect has launched it cooperation with the university upon the proposal of UN cultural body, Esmaeilpour noted.

Azerbaijan capital, Baku is currently screening five films by contemporary Iranian filmmakers as part of a program ’Iranian Cinema Week’.
According to ISNA, the films include ’Children of Heaven’ and ’Baran’ directed by internationally acclaimed filmmaker Majid Majidi, ’Sheida’ by Kamal Tabrizi, ’Tears of Cold’ by Azizollah Hamidnejad and ’Birth of a Butterfly’ by Mojtaba Raei.
The program which opened on Monday will continue until February 22.

Sadeq HedayatÕs statuette

Sixth round of Sadeq Hedayat Short Story Writing Competition ended in a ceremony on Sunday after announcing the winners of the event.
According to ISNA, the top awards of the event were presented to Shiva Ramzani, Faezeh Farhumand-Tehrani and Emilia Nazari for their stories ’Damned’, ’Empty Cups’ and ’Mr. Caesar Story Is Sad’ respectively.
The late author’s nephew, Jahangir Hedayat, who is secretary of Hedayat Literary Award, said at the ceremony that this year, panel of jury selected three stories as the best and all of them were at the same level. Therefore, Sadeq Hedayat statuette was not awarded to any of them and all three received plaques of honor.
He also said that if Hedayat were alive today, he would have turned 105 but would have faced further problems. His books are banned and his house, which could have been made a museum, is still occupied by the hospital while his personal belongings are crumbling in Reza Abbasi Museum.
Hedayat is still a shining star in Persian literature and his masterpiece ’Blind Owl’ is unique.
Addressing the same gathering, Sirous Ebrahimzadeh, an actor, said that Hedayat’s works have the potentials for being dramatized.
His works have the capacity for literary adaptation for three reasons. First is the paradox evident in his books while the second is characterization and use of Iranian characters. The other is the dialogues Hedayat has included in his works.
However, although many research works were conducted on his works, those involved in theater and dramatic arts have paid little attention to his works, he regretted.

Tenth round of Sistan-Baluchestan Book Fair opened in Zahedan late Sunday and will continue for a week.
Speaking at the inaugural ceremony, deputy minister of culture and Islamic guidance for cultural affairs, Mohsen Parviz said that the event plays an effective role in meeting the demands of the youth.
He further said that the ministry organizes fairs nationwide to promote book reading in the country and in line with the justice seeking policies of the incumbent government, reported IRNA.
Given the shortage of facilities in the province, the event seeks to make available the latest publications and foreign references for researchers, he said.
Meanwhile, director general of Sistan-Baluchestan Culture and Islamic Guidance Department, Nourollah Boreshan said that book is the most sincere criterion for evaluating the intellectuality of a nation.
The crucial role of books for human stems from its social aspects and book reading is an exigency for developing culture and civilization, he said, adding the book reveals the secrets of the lives of the ancestors and all should supplement the writings by adding some pages to them.
Given the social and cultural issues in the province, such exhibits can play an important role in the scientific advancement and cultural development of the region, he said.

Alain Robbe-Grillet

Writer and filmmaker Alain Robbe-Grillet, an “enfant terrible“ of France’s literary establishment who helped found the New Novel school in the 1950s, died on Monday aged 85, his publishers said.
Robbe-Grillet became a cult figure among France’s postwar intelligentsia with a genre of novel-writing that rejected conventions such as plot, characterization and emotion.
It effectively launched a type of semi-philosophical fiction in which nothing much happens but a vast amount is noticed, imagined or thought.
After publication of ’The Erasers’ in 1953, he went on to publish more than a dozen novels over a 20-year period including ’The Voyeur’ in 1955 and ’Jealousy’ in 1957, reported Reuters.
With his fame at its height, he was invited in 1961 to write the film script for ’Last Year at Marienbad’ -- almost a reflection of the “new novel“ in film form, with a repetitive, dream-like interaction of three nameless characters in a chateau.
From then on he largely devoted himself to cinema, not only script-writing but also directing a number of other films including ’The Beautiful Prisoner’ in 1983.
In 2004 he was elected to the elite Academie Francaise that acts as custodian of the French language.
But a rebel to the end, he refused to accept its conditions for entry which involved buying a ceremonial outfit and making a eulogy to his predecessor, so was never formally admitted to the body.
He died in hospital in the Normandy city of Caen, a spokeswoman for Fayard publishers said. She did not give a cause of death.

Second seminar to mark International Poetry Day will be organized on March 16-19 by the Foundation for Fars Studies in Shiraz.
According to MNA, academic secretary of the event Kavous Hasanli said that the seminar’s agenda includes a variety of programs including lectures by university instructors nationwide.
According to him, Ali Asghar Baba-Safari, from Isfahan, Mohammad Kazem Kahdouei from Yazd, Seyyed Ahmad Pashaei from Sanandaj and Abolqasem Radfar are among those who will deliver speeches on Iranian poetry and poets.
An Italian translator of Hafez poems will also be honored in the inaugural ceremony of the seminar to be held in Shiraz Medical University.
Director of the Foundation for Fars Studies Saeed Zahed said that holding poetry nights featuring veteran and young poets and organizing exhibitions of visual arts are among the other programs of the event.

On the locations of documentaries titled 'Iranian Carpet'

A collection of documentary films under the title of ’Iranian Carpet’ is currently on screen at Farhang Cinema.
According to ISNA, the collection, which was produced by 15 Iranian filmmakers, last year on the order of Iran’s National Carpet Center, went on screen without prior notification.
Episodes in the collection include ’A Handicraft Gift to Friend’ by Majid Majidi, ’Talking Rug’ by Bahram Beizaei, ’Tree of Life’ by Abbas Kiarostami, ’Angel and Carpet’ by Dariush Mehrjoui, ’No Response to Paging’ by Rakhshan Bani-Etemad, ’Carpet, Turkmen Horse’ by Khosrow Sinaei, ’Memory, Memory. . .’ by Reza Mirkarimi and ’Tribesmen Carpet’ by Behrouz Afkhami, ’Little Prince’ by Noureddin Zarrin-Kelk, ’Carpet and Life’ by Bahman Farman-Ara, ’Not for Sale’ by Seifollah Dad, ’Order of Aqa Seyyed Reza’ by Mojtaba Raei, ’Trouble Shooter’ by Jafar Panahi, ’Earth’s Carpet’ by Kamal Tabrizi and ’Copy Conforms to Original’ by Mohammad Reza Honarmand.
The film was produced by Reza Mirkarimi on the order of Iran’s National Carpet Center.
The film was screened at the 25th Fajr International Film Festival last year.