Art news in brief

August 20, 2014, 9:18 am

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Neruda’s “Memoirs” to appear in Persian

 

TEHRAN – Chile political poet Pablo Neruda’s “Memoirs” has been published in Persian in Iran.

 

“Memoir: I Confess I Have Lived” was translated into Persian by Ahmad Puri and Cheshmeh Publications published it.

 

Pablo Neruda (1904–1973) was the pen name of the Chilean poet-diplomat and politician Neftali Ricardo Reyes Basoalto. He chose his pen name after the Czech poet Jan Neruda. In 1971, Neruda won the Nobel Prize for Literature.

 

 

Tehran center hosts art books fair 

 

TEHRAN – An exhibition of art books is currently underway at the Gallery 2 of Tehran’s Niavaran Cultural Center.

 

Latest offerings on different fields of art, including cinema, theater, decoration, handicraft, graphic arts, painting, from Iranian and some foreign publishers are on display at the fair, which runs until August 31.

 

The full list of the books is available on the website www.vijehnashr.com.

 

 

Vocalist Mokhtabad to perform benefit concerts for people of Gaza 

 

TEHRAN – Iranian vocalist Abdolhossein Mokhtabad will perform concerts in Tehran to raise funds for the people of Gaza, who have been a prime target for Israeli airstrikes over the past month.

 

The concerts will be held at Milad Tower on August 24 and 25.

 

SB/YAW

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Children with Down syndrome to paint mural in Rezvanshahr

August 20, 2014, 9:18 am

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TEHRAN – Iranian doctor Azadeh Abbasi plans to lead a group of children with Down syndrome to embellish a 20-meter long wall with their paintings in the northern Iranian city of Rezvanshahr in Gilan Province next week.

 

Down syndrome is a genetic condition in which a person has 47 chromosomes instead of the usual 46, and that is why the wall is due to be named “Wall 47”, Abbasi told the Persian service of MNA on Wednesday.

 

“Children with Down syndrome have a shorter life expectancy. I have been working with these children for about 6 years and have always wondered why they do not receive sufficient help and support,” she added.

 

Most of these children suffer deep depression when they grow up but their participation in group activities helps lift up their spirits, she said, adding that the project helps them transfer their thoughts and feelings onto the wall.

 

“Most of the walls across the large cities are filled with a variety of advertisements, so why not have a wall dedicated to children with Down syndrome to explain about these children and raise people’s awareness about them?” she asked. 

 

About 18 children of this group live in Rezvanshahr, and that is why we chose this city, however Rezvanshahr Municipality has generously cooperated in carrying the project, she concluded.

 

RM/YAW

END

Iranian celebs ask UN to stop Israeli crimes in Gaza

August 20, 2014, 9:21 am

≫ Next: Painting by Gizella Varga Sinaii goes from canvas to mobile screen

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TEHRAN – A large number of Iranian actors, sportsmen, officials and students gathered in front of the United Nations Office in Tehran on Tuesday to once again ask the organization to stop the Israeli crimes in Gaza. 

 

The participants censured the Israeli crimes in Gaza and announced their support for the people of Gaza, Persian media reported on Wednesday.

 

The director of the Music Office of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, Piruz Arjmand, director of Iran Music Association Ali Torabi, and managing director of the Visual Media Institute Hossein Mosafer-Astaneh attended the gathering.

 

Actors Payam Dehkordi and Alireza Ghaffari, actresses Bahareh Rahnama and Kamand Amirsoleimani, filmmaker Shahram Karami, and ping pong champions Noshad and Milad Alamian were also seen among the participants.

 

Rahnama and Amirsoleimani asked the international organizations to put an end to the crimes, in a short speech they made at the gathering.

 

The participants later signed a petition in support of the children of Gaza.

 

Shahrzad Boulevard where the UN Office is situated in Tehran was renamed Gaza Blvd. 

 

RM/YAW

END

Painting by Gizella Varga Sinaii goes from canvas to mobile screen

August 20, 2014, 9:24 am

≫ Next: “City of Mice 2” to take Iranians on stroll down memory lane

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TEHRAN -- Tehran-based Hungarian painter Gizella Varga Sinaii, who is the wife of prominent Iranian filmmaker Khosro Sinaii, has directed a short mobile film about a painting from her series “Travel Diary”.

 

She plans to submit the film to the 2nd Tehran Mobile Film and Photo Festival, which will be held during September, the organizers announced on Wednesday.

 

“I wanted to show how the painting was created for the collection,” Varga Sinaii said.

 

“This work measures 50x1500 centimeters and its long length refers to this idea that life is long,” she added.

 

The collection “Travel Diary” contains 10 large-size paintings, which narrate the life story of Gizella in Hungary, Austria and Iran.

 

“Travel Diary”, also known as “Travelogue”, has been displayed at exhibitions in Finland, Austria, Hungary and the Georgian Republic over the past few years.

 

“In this collection that I began to create ten years ago, I have depicted my 50-year journey from the West to the East, and I add one or two works to the collection every year,” Varga Sinaii stated.

 

“About ten years ago, I saw that I loved to talk about myself in my works; about an artist who has come from another country and has settled in Iran,” she added.

 

“I always had a deep affection for Iranian art and I wanted to illustrate this love in my works,” she noted.

 

Seventy-year-old Varga Sinaii said that she has made the film the artwork with no help from her husband, director of the family drama “The Bride of Fire”.

 

“He was very concerned about how I would be able to make the film, but I wanted to make the film independently,” she added.

 

The film was shot by her daughter, Samira, who also gave her some advice on editing it. 

 

Mobile films by stage director Behruz Qharibpur, actors Babak Hamidian, Atila Pesyani, Farhad Aiish, Fatemeh Motamed-Arya, and Niki Karimi, singer Reza Yazdani and graphic designer Qobad Shiva will compete and be screened at the 2nd Tehran Mobile Film and Photo Festival, which will be held from September 12 to 19. 

 

MMS/YAW

END

“City of Mice 2” to take Iranians on stroll down memory lane

August 18, 2014, 8:45 am

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TEHRAN -- “The City of Mice 2” will premiere tomorrow at Iranian theaters to entertain children, and to evoke adults’ sense of nostalgia for the good old days of the 1980s.  

 

“The City of Mice 2” is a sequel to the 1984 big-screen hit “The City of Mice”, which was produced with the puppet characters from the popular children’s TV series “The School of Mice” (1981-1984).

 

The film, which is expected to breathe life into Iranian children’s cinema, was screened for journalists on Monday morning at the Kurosh Commercial and Cultural Complex, which has recently been established in western Tehran.

 

Some officials, including Iran Cinema Organization Director Hojjatollah Ayyubi and Farabi Cinema Foundation Director Mohammadreza Jafari-Jelveh, also attended the screening of the big-budget movie, which was directed by Marzieh Borumand.  

 

“The City of Mice 2” immerses the audience in the adventures of little mice who decide to take care of a defenseless kitty, an act which leads to turmoil in the city.

 

The movie is scheduled to be screened in some countries with Arabic and English subtitles in the near future, co-producer Alireza Sartipi told the Tehran Times.

 

Sartipi and Manijeh Hekmat produced the film under the auspices of the Farabi Cinema Foundation.
 

SB/YAW

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Achievements of Tehran Vocal Ensemble at World Choir Games celebrated

August 18, 2014, 8:48 am

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TEHRAN – The Music Office of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance celebrated the achievements of the Tehran Vocal Ensemble at the 8th World Choir Games during a ceremony at Tehran’s Vahdat Hall on Sunday evening.

 

The a cappella group received the gold medals in the sections of Mixed Chamber Choirs and Folklore, and the silver medal of the Popular Choral Music section at the festival, which was held in Riga, Latvia from July 9 to 19.

 

“Tonight, we have come together to honor an ensemble, which has achieved the greatest successes of our music history in the international arena,” Music Office Director Piruz Arjmand, who also accompanied the ensemble at the festival, said at the ceremony.

 

“The ensemble also showed that Iranian artists have the merit of taking the best places at international events,” he added.

 

The ceremony went on with performances by the Tehran Vocal Ensemble, and afterward Milad Omranlu, the conductor of the group, addressed the audience.

 

“The successes would never have been achieved without the collaboration of each member of the ensemble,” he said.

 

“I thank the members, who are the best since the establishment of the group,” he noted.

 

A number of prominent musicians, including Mohammadreza Shajarian and Nader Mashayekhi, attended the ceremony.

 

“In the stormy and heavy sea of music in Iran that the waves have taken me under water, I touched the sands, finding a pearl, which was the Tehran Vocal Ensemble,” said Mashayekhi, the former conductor of the Tehran Symphony Orchestra.

 

He praised Omranlu for establishing the ensemble.

 

Living legend of Iranian traditional music Shajarian said, “As a vocalist, I know how hard it is to perform a song without music. It is also hard to harmonize the members of an ensemble when there are no instruments in a performance. However, you were able to tune your voice with the quiet voice of the conductor for the performances.”

 

“Congratulations to you who are talented and were able to do a performance, which our music culture has never experienced before,” he added.

 

The ceremony ended with presenting some awards to Omranlu and the members of his group.

 

MMS/YAW

END

Alhoda to send books to Moscow, Frankfurt book fairs

August 19, 2014, 8:01 am

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TEHRAN -- Iran’s Alhoda International Publishing Institution plans to send over 100 titles of its latest publications to the 27th Moscow International Book Fair and the 66th Frankfurt Book Fair.

 

The Iran Cultural Fairs Institute will represent the books published in Iran in two book fairs, Alhoda official Ramineh Rezazadeh told the Persian service of MNA.

 

“All the books were published over the past three years and Alhoda along with 22 other publishers will provide the books for the book fairs,” she added.

 

The 27th Moscow International Book Fair will be held from September 3 to 7 in Russia.

 

Over 100 countries will display their cultural products from October 9 to 13 at the Frankfurt Book Fair, which is considered to be the most important book fair in the world for international deals and trading.

 

SB/YAW

END

 

Pinocchio to go on stage in Tehran

August 19, 2014, 8:01 am

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TEHRAN – The Iranian director Mohammadreza Maleki will stage “Pinocchio” from August 24 at Tehran’s Honar Hall.

 

“We have extracted some adventures from Pinocchio for staging in the form of a play,” Maleki told the Persian service of ISNA on Tuesday.

 

Pinocchio is a fictional character and the protagonist of the children’s novel “The Adventures of Pinocchio”: (1883), by the Italian writer Carlo Collodi. 

 

Azadeh Dastmalchi dramatized some parts of the novel for the play.

 

Maryam Ashuri, Ali Baruti, Milad Ramezani, Mohammad-Ali Hosseinalipur and Morvarid Mehr will star in the play.

 

Created by a woodcarver named Geppetto who lived in a small Italian village, Pinocchio was a wooden puppet, but dreamed of becoming a real boy. 

 

All the characters in the Pinocchio story will appear on stage as well as another character named Abji, who will represent the conscience of Pinocchio, he concluded.

 

SB/YAW

END

 

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Iran invited to art expos in Brussels

August 19, 2014, 8:01 am

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TEHRAN – Belgian Center for Fine Arts (Bozar) Artistic Director Paul Dujardin met with Islamic Culture and Relations Organization (ICRO) Deputy Director for International Affairs Hojjatoleslam Mohammad-Javad Abolqasemi on Monday to invite Iran to future expos to be held in Brussels.

 

Belgian ambassador to Iran François Del Marmol also accompanied Dujardin in the meeting, ICRO announced in a press release on Tuesday.

 

Dujardin said that Brussels will be playing host to several upcoming exhibits in which different countries will be attending.

 

He also invited Iran to take part in these exhibits.

 

He gave some details about the Bozar center and said that the center can act as a bridge between ICRO and Belgium as well as other European countries.

 

The active participation of Iran will help expand bilateral relations, he said.

 

He added that they aim to recognize active Iranian artists in other countries and also get to know better Iran’s culture from the past.

 

Hoj. Abolqasemi gave some details about different departments of ICRO and said that ICRO has representatives in over 70 countries.

 

He added that Iran and Belgium signed a cultural agreement many years ago and both countries can continue their cultural collaborations based on the agreement.

 

RM/YAW

END 

 

Poet Simin Behbahani dies at 87

August 19, 2014, 8:05 am

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TEHRAN -- Iranian poet Simin Behbahani, who is mostly known for the new rhymes she innovated in modern Persian ghazal (ode), died from heart failure at Tehran’s Pars Hospital on Tuesday morning. She was 87.

 

Behbahani, who was suffering from a heart problem over the past few years, fell into a coma on August 7.

 

“Despite all physicians’ efforts, my mother died at 1 a.m.,” her son Ali Behbahani told the Persian service of ISNA.

 

“Mother was a bit better on Monday and we thought that she had become aware of what was happening around her, but the hospital informed us that she died in the early hours of Tuesday,” he added.

 

Behbahani’s death came as a shock to literati and her fans, who sent condolence letters and messages that were published in Persian media. 

 

“Simin was the womanly gem of Iranian poetry,” critic, poet, and painter Javad Mojabi said in a statement published by ISNA.

 

“Her poetry was life itself. She breathed life into poetry, love, the people of her homeland, and her times,” he added.

 

“We mourn for her, but she never liked mourning,” Mojabi noted.

 

“I offer my condolences over the death of this great poet to her family, friends and fans, and particularly to Iranian women,” author Mahmud Dowlatabadi said in a message.

 

“She was always a poet who thought of the country ahead of her own wishes. I hope her memory lives on,” he added.

 

“The lady of the modern Persian ghazal left this world to become eternal beside the luminaries of Persian literature in history,” said Ali Dehbashi, the managing director of the Persian literary monthly Bokhara.

 

He compared Behbahani with three other woman poets: Parvin Etesami, Forugh Farrokhzad and Simin Daneshvar, who influenced Persian poetry over the past century. 

 

Simin Khalili, who later took her spouse family name Behbahani, was born into a cultured family. Her father, Abbas Khalili, was a writer and poet, and her mother, Fakhr Ozma Arghun, was a poet and a teacher of French literature.

 

In 1946, Simin married Hassan Behbahani and at the same time began to study law at the University of Tehran. However, she never took a position involving law. Instead, she worked as teacher of Persian literature for years.

 

Her first marriage broke up in 1970. Shortly thereafter, she married her classmate Manuchehr Kushiar, who died of a heart attack in 1983.

 

She created over twenty collections of poems. Her first collection “The Broken Setar” was published in 1951, and her last, “The Collection of Simin Behbahani’s Poems”, came in 2012.

 

A selection of her poems was translated into English by Iranian translator Ismail Salami in a book entitled “Maybe It’s the Messiah” in 2002.

 

Behbahani began composing poems in her youth using quatrain ghazals in their classical style. Under the influences of some modern works, she shifted to some unusual and innovative styles.

 

Literati and critics believe that the new rhymes she and other poets, such as Hushang Ebtehaj (Sayeh), created saved the Persian ghazal from oblivion.    

 

Her funeral is scheduled to be held on Friday. In her last will and testament, Behbahani asked to be buried in the Imamzadeh Taher Cemetery in Karaj.

 

MMS/YAW

END

Art news in brief

August 20, 2014, 9:18 am

≫ Next: Children with Down syndrome to paint mural in Rezvanshahr

≪ Previous: Poet Simin Behbahani dies at 87

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Neruda’s “Memoirs” to appear in Persian

 

TEHRAN – Chile political poet Pablo Neruda’s “Memoirs” has been published in Persian in Iran.

 

“Memoir: I Confess I Have Lived” was translated into Persian by Ahmad Puri and Cheshmeh Publications published it.

 

Pablo Neruda (1904–1973) was the pen name of the Chilean poet-diplomat and politician Neftali Ricardo Reyes Basoalto. He chose his pen name after the Czech poet Jan Neruda. In 1971, Neruda won the Nobel Prize for Literature.

 

 

Tehran center hosts art books fair 

 

TEHRAN – An exhibition of art books is currently underway at the Gallery 2 of Tehran’s Niavaran Cultural Center.

 

Latest offerings on different fields of art, including cinema, theater, decoration, handicraft, graphic arts, painting, from Iranian and some foreign publishers are on display at the fair, which runs until August 31.

 

The full list of the books is available on the website www.vijehnashr.com.

 

 

Vocalist Mokhtabad to perform benefit concerts for people of Gaza 

 

TEHRAN – Iranian vocalist Abdolhossein Mokhtabad will perform concerts in Tehran to raise funds for the people of Gaza, who have been a prime target for Israeli airstrikes over the past month.

 

The concerts will be held at Milad Tower on August 24 and 25.

 

SB/YAW

END

Children with Down syndrome to paint mural in Rezvanshahr

August 20, 2014, 9:18 am

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TEHRAN – Iranian doctor Azadeh Abbasi plans to lead a group of children with Down syndrome to embellish a 20-meter long wall with their paintings in the northern Iranian city of Rezvanshahr in Gilan Province next week.

 

Down syndrome is a genetic condition in which a person has 47 chromosomes instead of the usual 46, and that is why the wall is due to be named “Wall 47”, Abbasi told the Persian service of MNA on Wednesday.

 

“Children with Down syndrome have a shorter life expectancy. I have been working with these children for about 6 years and have always wondered why they do not receive sufficient help and support,” she added.

 

Most of these children suffer deep depression when they grow up but their participation in group activities helps lift up their spirits, she said, adding that the project helps them transfer their thoughts and feelings onto the wall.

 

“Most of the walls across the large cities are filled with a variety of advertisements, so why not have a wall dedicated to children with Down syndrome to explain about these children and raise people’s awareness about them?” she asked. 

 

About 18 children of this group live in Rezvanshahr, and that is why we chose this city, however Rezvanshahr Municipality has generously cooperated in carrying the project, she concluded.

 

RM/YAW

END

Iranian celebs ask UN to stop Israeli crimes in Gaza

August 20, 2014, 9:21 am

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TEHRAN – A large number of Iranian actors, sportsmen, officials and students gathered in front of the United Nations Office in Tehran on Tuesday to once again ask the organization to stop the Israeli crimes in Gaza. 

 

The participants censured the Israeli crimes in Gaza and announced their support for the people of Gaza, Persian media reported on Wednesday.

 

The director of the Music Office of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, Piruz Arjmand, director of Iran Music Association Ali Torabi, and managing director of the Visual Media Institute Hossein Mosafer-Astaneh attended the gathering.

 

Actors Payam Dehkordi and Alireza Ghaffari, actresses Bahareh Rahnama and Kamand Amirsoleimani, filmmaker Shahram Karami, and ping pong champions Noshad and Milad Alamian were also seen among the participants.

 

Rahnama and Amirsoleimani asked the international organizations to put an end to the crimes, in a short speech they made at the gathering.

 

The participants later signed a petition in support of the children of Gaza.

 

Shahrzad Boulevard where the UN Office is situated in Tehran was renamed Gaza Blvd. 

 

RM/YAW

END

Painting by Gizella Varga Sinaii goes from canvas to mobile screen

August 20, 2014, 9:24 am

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TEHRAN -- Tehran-based Hungarian painter Gizella Varga Sinaii, who is the wife of prominent Iranian filmmaker Khosro Sinaii, has directed a short mobile film about a painting from her series “Travel Diary”.

 

She plans to submit the film to the 2nd Tehran Mobile Film and Photo Festival, which will be held during September, the organizers announced on Wednesday.

 

“I wanted to show how the painting was created for the collection,” Varga Sinaii said.

 

“This work measures 50x1500 centimeters and its long length refers to this idea that life is long,” she added.

 

The collection “Travel Diary” contains 10 large-size paintings, which narrate the life story of Gizella in Hungary, Austria and Iran.

 

“Travel Diary”, also known as “Travelogue”, has been displayed at exhibitions in Finland, Austria, Hungary and the Georgian Republic over the past few years.

 

“In this collection that I began to create ten years ago, I have depicted my 50-year journey from the West to the East, and I add one or two works to the collection every year,” Varga Sinaii stated.

 

“About ten years ago, I saw that I loved to talk about myself in my works; about an artist who has come from another country and has settled in Iran,” she added.

 

“I always had a deep affection for Iranian art and I wanted to illustrate this love in my works,” she noted.

 

Seventy-year-old Varga Sinaii said that she has made the film the artwork with no help from her husband, director of the family drama “The Bride of Fire”.

 

“He was very concerned about how I would be able to make the film, but I wanted to make the film independently,” she added.

 

The film was shot by her daughter, Samira, who also gave her some advice on editing it. 

 

Mobile films by stage director Behruz Qharibpur, actors Babak Hamidian, Atila Pesyani, Farhad Aiish, Fatemeh Motamed-Arya, and Niki Karimi, singer Reza Yazdani and graphic designer Qobad Shiva will compete and be screened at the 2nd Tehran Mobile Film and Photo Festival, which will be held from September 12 to 19. 

 

MMS/YAW

END

Art news in brief

August 22, 2014, 8:24 am

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President honors eulogist Salim Moazzenzadeh

 

TEHRAN -- President Hassan Rouhani honored Salim Moazzenzadeh Ardebili, the renowned eulogist who mostly performs recitations in the Azari language during the mourning ceremonies of the month of Muharram and other Islamic rituals, with the Order of Culture on Thursday.

 

The honoring ceremony was held as part of a program for the president’s visit to the northwestern Iranian province of Ardebil.

 

 

“Taj Mahal” director donates award to Imam Khomeini museum

 

TEHRAN -- “Taj Mahal” director Danesh Egbashavi has donated the best film award that he received for the film at the Islamic World Film Festival in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 2013, to the museum of the Institute for the Compilation and Publication of Imam Khomeini’s Works.

 

Egbashavi handed over the award to Imam Khomeini’s grandson, Hojjatoleslam Hassan Khomeini, at his office on Thursday.

 

MMS/YAW

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Poet Simin Behbahani laid to rest at Tehran cemetery

August 22, 2014, 8:28 am

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TEHRAN -- Iranian poet Simin Behbahani was laid to rest in her family plot at Tehran’s Behesht Zahra Cemetery on Friday.

 

Behbahani had asked to be buried at the Imamzadeh Taher Cemetery in Karaj in her last will and testament, but her children decided to change the location.

 

The funeral procession began at Tehran’s Vahdat Hall. A large number of celebrities and fans gathered in front of Vahdat Hall to say their last goodbye to Behbahani.

 

Author Mahmud Dowlatabadi, singer Mohammadreza Shajarian, art critic Javad Mojabi, and the poet’s elder son, Ali Behbahani, delivered short speeches during the funeral ceremony.

 

Vocalists Shahram Nazeri and Homayun Shajarian also performed several pieces of poetry by Behbahani at the ceremony.

 

Deputy Culture Minster for Artistic Affairs Ali Moradkhani, filmmaker Bahman Farmanara, actors Sirus Ebrahimzadeh, Roya Nonahali, Mahnaz Afshar, and Maryam Bubani also attended the ceremony.

 

Simin Behbahani died from heart failure at Tehran’s Pars Hospital on Tuesday morning at the age of 87. Behbahani was suffering from a heart problem over the past few years and fell into a coma on August 7.

 

A memorial service will be held at Jame’ Mosque of Shahrak-e Gharb neighborhood in Tehran on Sunday.

 

RM/YAW

END

Photos of Israel’s 33-day war against Lebanon on display at Tehran exhibit

August 22, 2014, 8:29 am

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TEHRAN – The Israeli 33-day war of 2006 against Lebanon, the exchange of prisoners and martyrs of the war are all portrayed in a photo exhibition, which is underway at Tehran’s Enqelab Cultural Center.

 

Entitled “Tulips on Burnt Nests”, the photos were taken by the two photographer and documentarian brothers Vahid and Saeid Faraji during 10 different trips to Lebanon, the Persian service of MNA reported on Friday.

 

After the 33-day war, Lebanese people returned to their cities and arranged a big celebration in which the two brothers took part and recorded the events in their photos.

 

The exchange of prisoners of the war and the photos of the Lebanese prisoner Samir Qantar, who was kept in Israeli prisons for about 30 years, are among the highlights of the exhibit.

 

The Association of Photographers of Islamic Revolution and Sacred Defense had previously published a series of the displayed photos in a book named “Exchange”.

 

The exhibit, which opened on August 14, will be running until August 27 in the center located on Komeil St., off Navvab Safavi Highway.

 

RM/YAW

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NLAI Director Salehi-Amiri visits National Library of France

August 22, 2014, 8:30 am

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TEHRAN – An Iranian delegation headed by National Library and Archives of Iran (NLAI) Director Seyyed Reza Salehi-Amiri visited the National Library of France in Paris on last Monday.

 

Salehi-Amiri traveled France last week to attend the 80th International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) General Conference and Assembly, which was held in Lyon from August 16 to 22.

 

He also held a meeting with National Archives of France Deputy Director Pascal Dal Pont at the library.

 

Salehi-Amiri was fully briefed about the National Archives of France by Dal Pont and they also discussed the expansion of relations during the meeting.

 

In addition, Dal Pont spoke about National Library of France’s plan for establishing an Iran section in the near future.

 

SB/YAW

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Asghar Farhadi to head Busan filmfest jury

August 22, 2014, 8:30 am

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TEHRAN – Celebrated Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi has been appointed as president of the jury for the New Currents section at the 19th Busan International Film Festival, which will be held in South Korea from October 2 to 11.

 

New Currents is the main section of the festival which is for the first or the second feature films by up-and-coming Asian directors. Two best feature films are awarded in this section.

 

Professor of film studies at the Scotland’s University of St. Andrews Dina Iordanova, French philosopher Jacques Ranciere, Indian actress Suhasini Maniratnam, and Korean filmmaker Bong Joon-ho are the members of the jury. 

 

The Iranian director Mohammad-Mehdi Asgarpur’s drama “We Have a Guest” will compete in the festival.

 

The Iranian filmmaker Rakhshan Bani-Etemad presided over the jury for the New Currents section at the 18th Busan International Film Festival.

 

Farhadi’s “A Separation” won an Oscar, a Golden Globe and a French César for best foreign language film earlier in 2012 as well as Berlin’s Golden Bear in 2011.

 

SB/YAW

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Kianian rejects role in “Homeland” due to anti-Iranian content

August 22, 2014, 8:32 am

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TEHRAN -- Iranian actor Reza Kianian has rejected a proposal to play a role in the U.S. TV series “Homeland” due to its anti-Iranian content.

 

“Some time ago, I received an email from IMDB, asking me to play a role in ‘Homeland’, which was being shot in South Africa at that time,” Kianian told the Persian service of ISNA on Friday.

 

“They told me they would send a ticket to the country in ten days if I agreed to act in the series,” he added.

 

Kianian said that he rejected the proposal after he found the series is offensive to Iranian people. 

 

“In addition, they behaved in a discourteous manner, because they think that there is a strong desires among our actors to act in foreign film projects, so they feel no need to provide any clarification about the screenplay or what they will pay,” he added.

 

“Acting in a foreign project is not so fantastic that an actor would accept a role in it without reading its screenplay or being informed about his role or pay. Furthermore, I never want to appear in a project that is insulting to my people,” he stated.

 

“Homeland” is an American political thriller television series developed by Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa based on the Israeli series “Hatufim”, which was created by Gideon Raff.

 

In its third season, Saul Berenson, the acting director of the CIA, plans to bring the No 2 official in Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, Majid Javadi, to the United States and turn him into a double agent working against the Iranian government. He is also the guy who is the alleged mastermind of a car bomb attack against the CIA that ended season two.
 

MMS/YAW

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