TEHRAN -- A group of Egyptian cineastes met Iran Cinema Organization Director Javad Shamaqdari in Tehran on Tuesday.
Iran has organized the meeting to acquaint the group with the country’s cultural policies and organizations, the Persian service of MNA reported on Wednesday.
No names were mentioned in the report for the members of the group.
However, Lebanon’s Hezbollah-owned Al-Manar television station said last week that director Aly Badrkhan, actors Sameh Al-Sariti, Abdel Aziz Makhyoun and Ashraf Abdul Ghafoor, cameraman Mahmud Abdul Sami, musician Iman El-Bahr Darwish and producer Mohammad Fouzi were among cineastes invited to Iran.
Political relations between Iran and Egypt have not reached their desired level yet after the revolution in Egypt, said Shamaqdari, addressing the cineastes during the meeting.
“However, we have held three meeting in the cultural field, which shows that it is impossible to restrict culture behind the walls,” he added.
“After the Islamic revolution in Iran, I was sure that we would develop cooperation with Muslim Arab friends one day and thank God that the Arab countries have begun to build free and independent governments,” he stated.
Shamaqdari gave details about the Iranian cinema organizations and spoke about Hollywood cinema as the meeting went on.
Hollywood is promoting the American lifestyle through its productions around the world, he said.
“In its productions, Hollywood is struggling to distort and even to ridicule the Muslim nation’s historical and cultural identity,” he added.
“Technology and cinema have become the West’s means of cultural assimilation around the globe. Thus, after these Arab revolutions, you artists have greater responsibility to struggle against this attitude of the West,” Shamaqdari noted.
Iranian filmmaker Jamal Shurjeh’s “33 Days”, which is about the Israeli 33-Day War of 2006 against Lebanon, had been screened for the group before the meeting.
MMS/YAW
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