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Annecy festival to screen Iranian animations

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TEHRAN -- Two Iranian animations will go on screen at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, which will be held in France from June 10 to 15.
 
“The Kitten” directed by Shiva Sadeq-Assadi and “Bike” by Sara Shahabi will compete in the festival.
 
“The Kitten”, which artistically portrays animal abuse, will go on screen at the short film section of the event.
 
“Bike” by Sara Shahabi will compete at the Graduate films section.
 
“Lina Luke”, a snack commercial directed by Moin Samadi, will compete in the advertising film section of the event.
 
The Annecy International Animation Film Festival (Festival International du Film d’Animation d’Annecy) was established in 1960 and takes place in the beginning of June in the town of Annecy, France.
 
It is one of the four international animated film festivals sponsored by the Association d’International du Film d’Animation (or ASIFA, the International Animated Film Association).
 
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Iranian filmmaker to shoot refugee drama in Sweden, Afghanistan

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TEHRAN -- An Iranian filmmaker Abbas Rafei plans to produce a movie about an Afghan refugee in Sweden and Afghanistan.
 
The film entitled “Unending” will be made under the auspices of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), said Rafei in a press release on Tuesday.
 
UNESCO proposed that Iranian filmmaker Majid Mosahebi, who previously helped the organization in holding some humanitarian film festivals, direct the film, he added.
 
“Unending” will be his directorial debut in the feature genre, he stated.
 
The story of “Unending” is set in Afghanistan and Sweden between 2001 and 2003.
 
It is about Emma, a Swedish journalist who is a strong opponent of her country’s plan to accept refugees. She changes her mind after she meets an Afghan woman who was taken into Sweden to receive treatments for her war-related injuries.
 
Most members of the cast for the English-language film will be hired from the European countries, Rafei said.
 
“An Iranian actress will likely play the role of the Afghan woman,” he added.
 
Mosahebi’s credits include “The Return” and several other documentaries.
 
“We are waiting for the approval of the foreign members of the crew and Iran’s Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance to begin shooting of the film,” Rafei said.
 
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What’s in Art Galleries

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Painting
 
* “Pandora’s Box”, a series by painter Golnar Tabibzadeh, will be put on display in an exhibition at the Asar Gallery from April 21 until May 8.
 
The collection, which has been created over the past three years, challenges some social standards to explore the true nature of people.
 
The gallery is located at 16 Barforushan St. off Iranshahr Street.
 
* The Shokuh Gallery is currently hosting an exhibition of paintings by Giti Khorsand and Nafiseh Dibaj.
 
“My works in this exhibit show the perplexity of man in the modern world. The works convey a kind of dark satire,” Khorsand said.
 
Dibaj has focused on the theme of women in her works on display at the exhibition, which comes to an end this evening. 
 
The gallery is located at 19 Amir Nuri Alley, North Salimi St., Andarzgu Blvd.
 
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“Hafez” invited to Italy

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TEHRAN -- Iran’s Aran Theater Troupe has been invited to Italy to perform the “Hafez” opera puppet show in Milan.
 
“Piccolo Teatro in Milan, which is one of Italy’s most prestigious theaters, has invited us to perform the show in the city,” director Behruz Gharibpur told the Persian service of ISNA on Tuesday.
 
“The puppet show will be staged at the theater in early or mid-May. The officials of the theater will inform us about the exact date in the near future,” he added.
 
The puppet show, which is about the life story of Persian poet Hafez (1325-1389), has previously been performed in Tehran.
 
Aran has staged the opera puppet shows “Macbeth”, “Ashura”, “Rustam and Sohrab”, and “Rumi” in Iran some international events over the past decade.
 
Gharibpur plans to stage “Leyli and Majnun” in the Azeri language in Tehran in June or July. It is based on an opera of the same name composed by Azerbaijani musician and playwright Uzeyir Hajibeyov (1885-1948).
 
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Iranian films to compete in Cannes

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TEHRAN -- The 66th Cannes Film Festival is scheduled to screen two Iranian films.
 
“More Than Two Hours” directed by Ali Asghari and “Duet” by Navid Danesh will compete in various sections of the event, which will be held from May 15 to 26.
 
“More Than Two Hours” will be shown in the Short Film Competition and “Duet” will compete at the Cinéfondation section.
 
The entries to the Cinéfondation and short film sections were announced on Wednesday. The lineup for the official competition of the festival is scheduled to be released today.
 
Nine films will compete in 2013 for Palme d’Or in the short film category and the winner will be awarded by jury president Jane Campion.
 
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French Designers Alliance president to hold workshops in Tehran

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TEHRAN -- The president of the French Designers Alliance (AFD) François Caspar will hold workshops in Tehran next week.
 
He was invited to Iran by the Iranian Graphic Designers Society (IGDS), IGDS Director Ali Rashidi said during a press conference on Tuesday.
 
The workshops are part of the program organized for an Iranian graphic design festival, which opened on Tuesday and will run until April 25
 
The Paris-based poster designer Caspar has been designing customized overall visual communication for government bodies, companies and theaters for over 20 years. 
 
His posters have been awarded and shown in about 120 international exhibitions and are owned by public and private collections in Paris, Hamburg and New York. 
 
The French Designers Alliance is the largest multi-disciplinary professional organization of designers in France.
 
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Iranian films line up for Lucknow festival in India

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TEHRAN -- A large number of Iranian films in various categories will be competing in the 5th International Children’s Film Festival, which will be held in Lucknow, India from April 19 to 25.
 
“The Rooster Trademark Paper” directed by Maryam Milani, “Flight of Kites” by Ali Qavitan, “The Companion” by Mohammad-Hojjat Zijudi, “Meadows” by Mohammad-Ali Talebi, and “Gold Tail” by Gholamreza Ramezani will be screened in the Feature Non-Animation section of the festival, organizers recently announced on their website.
 
“Story of Samara” by Hossein Soltani and Vahid Chalak is the only Iranian entry in the Feature Animation section.
 
The entries in the Short Film section include “Gutty” by Seyyed Sajjad Musavi, “Intersection” by Mohsen Baqeri Dastgerdi, “Emergency Exit” Mehdi Jafari, and “Where Is Fatemeh’s House” and “The Rooster” by Fereidun Najafi.
 
“Renovation” by Mohammad Hadadipur, Mani and the Wandering Paintings” by Ali Derakhshi and Abbas Jalali-Yekta, “The Rolling Pumpkin” by Morteza Ahadi, “Shekarestan” by Babak Nazari, and “I Was Two” by Shiva Sadeq-Asadi will be screened in the Short Animation section of the festival.

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Veteran musician Dariush Safvat dies at 85

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TEHRAN -- Veteran musician and teacher of Iranian traditional music Dariush Safvat died of natural causes at the age of 85 at his home in Karaj on Monday night.
 
Several outstanding Iranian musicians including Parviz Meshkatian and Majid Kiani studied under Safvat, who himself was one of the disciples of Abolhassan Saba, a prominent master of Iranian traditional music.
 
Safvat was born in Shiraz and his father was his first teacher who taught him to play setar. Due to his close friendship with cultural figures, Safvat’s father sent him to Habib Samaei to learn to play the santur at 16. 
 
In 1947, he was employed in the Iranian finance ministry and began to study law at the University of Tehran. 
 
However, he met maestro Saba at that time and continued his studies in music with him until his death in 1957.
 
In 1960, Safvat left Iran to study at the Institute of Musicology in Paris. He also got a Ph.D. in law at the same time.
 
He was one of the main founders of the Center for Preservation and Promotion of Music, a nongovernmental educational institute which was established in 1968.
 
He wrote books in Persian, English, and French.
French musician and scholar Jean During and his Iranian colleague Zia Mirabdolbaghi compiled Safvat studies in “The Art of Persian Music: Lesson from Master Dariush Safvat”, which was published in 1991.
 
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Iranian docs competing at Al Jazeera festival

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TEHRAN -- Three Iranian documentaries are competing at the 9th Al Jazeera International Documentary Film Festival, which is currently underway in Doha, the capital of Qatar.
 
The Iranian documentaries “Mysteries of Abu Salim Prison” directed by Mohsen Eslamzadeh, “Thirty Years with Jawshan Kabir” by Mehdi Zamanpur Kiasari and “In Search of Persian Leopard” by Fat’hollah Amiri will be screened at the festival.
 
Works by aspiring and veteran filmmakers from across the world have been selected to be screened at the festival, which runs until Sunday April 21.
 
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Iranian artworks to go under hammer at Dubai gallery

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TEHRAN -- Works by 27 Iranian artists will be offered at Dubai’s Ayyam Gallery’s sale entitled the Young Collectors Auction on April 30. 
 
The Young Collectors Auction will feature over eighty works in painting, sculpture, photography, and video by acclaimed and emerging artists from the countries of the region.
 
“Lost Promises” by Farzad Kohan, “Ice Cream” by Hamed Sahihi, “Khovarnaq” by Javad Modarresi and “Ashura Day” by Parastu Foruhar are among the Iranian artworks that will be auctioned at the gallery. 
 
The gallery also will offer works by Iranian artists Qodratollah Aqeli, Mehdi Nabavi, Amin Baqeri, Khosro Hassanzadeh, Mahmud Sabzi, Mansur Vakili, Ahmad Morshedlu, Nazar Musavinia and Ghazaleh Hedayat.
 
After the sale, the gallery also plans to organize a charity auction to raise funds for the United Nations World Food Program. 
 
A group of artists has donated some of their works in painting, sculpture and calligraphy to the charity auction organized in support of this great cause aimed at struggling against world hunger.
 
Works by Iranian artists Farideh Lashai and Parviz Kalantari will be on sale at this charity event.
 
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Master of siah-bazi Sadi Afshar dies at 79

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TEHRAN -- Sadi Afshar, the master of siah-bazi, a type of Iranian folk dramatic performing art, died at his home in Tehran on Friday at the age of 79.
 
He was suffering from a lung infection and osteoporosis, the Persian media outlets reported.
 
Siah-bazi is a type of Iranian folk play featuring a blackfaced harlequin who stirs the audience to laughter with amusing improvisations.
 
Afshar staged many performances in Iran and other countries during his lifelong career in this genre of Iranian dramatic art.
 
He was so dedicated to his work that once during an interview he had expressed his wish to die on stage.
 
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Tehran university to screen doc on brain drain in Iran

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Tehran -- Tehran’s Sharif University of Technology plans to screen “Alberta Legacy 2”, a documentary which spotlights the brain drain in Iran, on April 30.
 
Iranian filmmaker Hossein Shamaqdari has directed the documentary with the help of some students at the university, from which many of its graduates immigrate to Europe or North America to continue their studies.
 
The filmmaker has conducted interviews with the alumni of Iranian universities studying at foreign universities to shed light on the reasons behind their reluctance to return their homeland.
 
The documentary premiered in the 31st Fajr International Film Festival in Tehran this year in February.
 
The documentary has been produced at the Arman Media Cultural Institute. 
 
The first episode of the documentary was produced last year. It explains how talented Iranian high-school graduates are attracted by universities in Europe and North America.
 
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Farhadi’s “Past” contending for Palme d’Or at Cannes

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TEHRAN -- The Iranian Oscar-winning director Asghar Farhadi’s latest film “The Past” and 18 other movies will be contending for Palme d’Or at next month’s Cannes Film Festival, organizers a announce on Thursday.
 
Starring Bérénice Bejo, Tahar Rahim and Ali Mosaffa, the French-language film is Farhadi’s first project that was shot outside of his homeland.
 
The film is about an Iranian man, who has ongoing domestic problems with his French wife. He deserts her and his two children to go back to his homeland, Iran.
 
Farhadi’s previous film “A Separation” won an Oscar, Golden Globe and French César for best foreign film earlier in 2012 as well as Berlin’s Golden Bear in 2011.
 
In this year’s Cannes line-up for the official competition are also “Only God Forgives” directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, “Borgman” by Alex Van Warmerdam, “The Great Beauty” by Paolo Sorrentino, “Behind the Candelabra” by Steven Soderbergh, “Venus in Fur” by Roman Polanski, “Nebraska” by Alexander Payne, “Young and Beautiful” by Francois Ozon, “Straw Shield” by Takashi Miike, and “Blue Is the Warmest Color” by Abdellatif Kechiche.
 
Other contenders for Palme d’Or also include “Like Father, Like Son” by Kore-Eda Hirokazu, “A Touch of Sin” by Jia Zhangke, “Grisgris” by Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, “The Immigrant” by James Gray, “Heli” by Amat Escalante, “Jimmy P.” by Arnaud Desplechin, “Michael Kohlhaas” by Arnaud Despalieres, “Inside Llewyn Davis” by Joel and Ethan Coen) and “Un Chateau en Italie” by Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi.
 
Three other Iranian films will also be screened in various sections of this year’s Cannes Film Festival, which will open on May 16.
 
“More Than Two Hours” directed by Ali Asgari will compete in the short film section, and “Needle” by Anahita Qazvinizadeh and “Duet” by Navid Danesh will be shown in the Cinefondation section.
 
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Iranian short films to compete in Tokyo festival

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TEHRAN -- Three Iranian films will compete in the Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia, which will be held in Tokyo in mid May.
 
“Emergency Exit” directed Mehdi Jafari, “Glimmer” by Omid Abdollahi, and “It Was My City” by Tina Pakravan will be screened in the Asian Competition of the festival.
 
“Emergency Exit” is about a little boy who escapes the first day of school. 
 
“Glimmer” tells the story of an old optician who is going to close his optometry shop due to his weak eyesight. But there is still a client who has not come to pick up her eyeglasses yet.
 
“It Was My City” begins in extreme close-up and in one impressive single shot widens to see a wide array of ordinary people living their lives against the backdrop of war.
 
The films have previously been screened at other national and international events.
 
The Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia was established in Tokyo’s Harajuku district in 1999 to introduce this new form of moving image to Japan. 
 
In 2004 the festival was officially accredited by the Academy Awards, making the festival Grand Prix winner eligible for nomination in the short film category of the academy. 
 
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Another Persian translation of “Désirée” hits bookstores

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TEHRAN -- Another Persian translation of the popular novel “Désirée” has recently been published by Ofogh in Tehran.
 
Translated by Keyvan Abidi Ashtiani, the two-volume book is a part of the classic romantic literature of the world that Ofoq plans to publish.
 
Written by the Austrian author Annemarie Selinko, the book is about one of Napoleon’s mistresses and, later, a queen of Sweden, Désirée Clary.
 
The book narrates the tale of Napoleon Bonaparte’s court, which is brought vividly to life through the viewpoint of a merchant’s young daughter from Marseilles who later became Napoleon’s fiancée and eventually rose to become queen of Sweden.
 
A massive international bestseller, the book has been translated into 25 languages, and in 1954 was turned into a movie with Marlon Brando and Jean Simmons.
 
Seyyed Mehdi Alavi, Parviz Shahdi, Homayun Pakravan and other Iranian translators have previously rendered the book into Persian.
 
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Literati to celebrate National Sadi Day

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TEHRAN -- Poet Sadi, the author of the classical Persian masterpieces Gulistan and Bustan, will be commemorated in Iran today, which is National Sadi Day.
 
The Iranian people and literati attend a program arranged for this day at the Fars National Library and Archives in Shiraz, Sadi’s birthplace, which is also home to his tomb.
 
The Center for the Study of Sadi is the organizer of the program entitled “Sadi in Our Times”, center Director Kurosh Kamali Sarvestani said in a press release on Saturday.
 
“The program will focus on Sadi’s influence on our modern literature, culture and ethics,” he added.
 
Scholars and academic figures are scheduled to deliver speeches on various subjects during the program.   
 
Asghar Dadbeh will give a speech on the “Need for Sadi in Our Times” and Amir-Ali Nojumian will present a lecture on “Dialogue Functions of Sadi in Modern Iran”.
 
Some Turkish scholars including Hicabi Kirlangic of Ankara University and Mustafa Cicekler of Istanbul University have been invited to the program.
 
Kirlangic is scheduled to lecture on “Turkish Intellectuals and Sadi” and Cicekler will speak on “The Heirs and Narrators of Sadi’s Knowledge in Turkey”.
 
Kamali Sarvestani said that 287,100 copies of books, which include 167 titles, have been published about Sadi and his works in Iran over the last year.
 
National Sadi Day will also be celebrated in some other Iranian cities.
 
The National Orchestra is planning to perform a concert at Tehran’s Vahdat Hall this evening.
 
Homayun Rahimian will conduct the orchestra and vocalist Mohammad Motamedi will perform some of Sadi’s poems on Prophet Muhammad (S).
 
Sadi (c. 1213-1291) is known for his works the Bustan (The Orchard) and the Gulistan (The Rose Garden), which have been translated into almost every major language.
 
Andre du Ryer was the first European to present Sadi to the West by means of a partial French translation of the Gulistan in 1634. Adam Olearius followed soon with a complete translation of the Bustan and the Gulistan into German in 1654.
 
British orientalists Edward Backhouse Eastwick (1814–1883) Richard Francis Burton (1821–1890) and several other Western translators rendered the Gulistan and the Bustan into English. 
 
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Tehran museum to display Polish posters

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TEHRAN -- A collection of posters created by the Polish graphic designers will go on display during a exhibition, which will open at the Imam Ali (AS) Religious Arts Museum on April 26.  
 
Sixty artworks created by the artists of the Polish School of Posters have been selected for the exhibit, museum director Amir Abdolhosseini said in a press release on Sunday.
 
The art show has been organized with the help of the cultural attaché’s office of Poland in Tehran, he added. 
 
He said that the exhibition may travel to other Iran cities.
 
The exhibition will be curated by Iraj Mirza-Alikhani, a member of the Iranian Graphic Designers Society.
 
Beginning in the 1950s and through the 1980s, the Polish School of Posters combined the aesthetics of painting with the succinctness and simple metaphor of the poster. 
 
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Iranian, Russian film institutes sign MOU

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TEHRAN -- Iran’s Visual Media Institute (VMI) and the Union of Russian Filmmakers (URF) have signed a memorandum of understanding in Moscow on Saturday.
 
The MOU was signed by VMI Director Mohammadreza Abbasian and URF Chairman Nikita Mikhalkov, the Iranian cultural attaché’s office announced in a press release.
 
Based on the MOU the institutions will help with production services and orders development for producers from both countries.
 
In addition, the institutions committed to organize mutual film workshops, screenings, and seminars to provide the necessary atmospheres for filmmakers of the countries to share their knowledge and experience.
 
The MOU will be valid for three years and afterwards it can be extended if both side agree.
 
Abbasian has travelled to Moscow along with an Iranian delegation led by Iran Cinema Organization Director Javad Shamaqdari.
 
The attended a program entitled the Iranian Film Days, which was held at Moscow’s Dom Kino on Saturday and Sunday.
 
“The Third Day” directed by Mohammad-Hossein Latifi, “Hell, Purgatory, Paradise” by Bijan Mirbaqeri, “M for Mother” by Rasul Mollaqolipur, and “The Hidden Sense” by Mostafa Razzaq-Karimi were screened at the event.
 
Members of the films’ casts and crews also attended Q&A sessions during the program.
 
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“Orange Suit” director declares candidacy in city council elections

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TEHRAN -- Dariush Mehrjuii, the director of the environment-themed movie “The Orange Suit”, is preparing to campaign in the upcoming city council elections expected this year in June.
 
He plans to register for the city council elections in Mohammadshahr, a suburb of Karaj, the capital of Alborz Province, the Persian service of ILNA reported on Sunday.
 
Film producer Habibollah Kasesaz, actor Amin Zendegani, former TV anchor Elaheh Rezaii, and singers Mohammadreza Eivazi and Abdolhossein Mokhtabad have previously registered for the city council elections in Tehran.
 
“The artists’ decision to become members of the city council is positive, because they have aesthetic concerns, so they could play a key role in making the cities more beautiful and clean,” Mehrjuii told ILNA.
 
“In all countries, artists try to be involved in making decisions for their cities,” he added.
 
The city council elections will be held on June 14, the same day as the presidential election.
 
Mehrjuii’s “The Orange Suit” (also known as “The Orange Dressed”), which promotes the cleaning of the environment, premiered in April last year.
 
“Since the film is about cleanness, I hope people are convinced to avoid producing garbage and to keep the environment clean,” Mehrjuii said in an interview before the premiere of the film.
 
“In all places, the country enjoys a striking natural beauty, a large part of which has been polluted by garbage,” Mehrjuii lamented.
 
“I also would like ‘The Orange Suit’ to be a warning to officials to keep the environment clean because it is being destroyed,” he stated.
 
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Iran, Armenia to boost cultural relations

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TEHRAN -- Iranian Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Mohammad Hosseini and Minister of Culture of the Republic of Armenia Hasmik Poghosyan discussed the expansion of cultural relations during a meeting in Yerevan on Thursday.
 
The ministers signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU), on the basis of which Iran and Armenia will be increasing their collaboration on art, culture and cinema, the Persian service of IRNA reported on Sunday.
 
Hosseini said that Iran is ready to hold courses on the Persian language and cultural festivals across Armenia and added that organizing the programs will help the two nations gain an understanding of each other’s cultures.
 
Armenian Minister of Diaspora Hranush Hakobyan received Hosseini on Friday. In addition, they both discussed the opportunities to broadcast Iranian films on Armenian state television and private channels.
 
Hosseini who arrived in Yerevan on Thursday at the head of the delegation also met Armenian Vice Prime Minister Armen Gevorgyan on Saturday and talked about bilateral relationships.
 
Providing more facilities for Iranian students studying in Armenian universities as well as boosting cultural relations were also discussed in this meeting.
 
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