Iranian vocalist to perform in Paris

The French capital Paris will play host to classic and mystic performances by one of Iran’s most prominent vocalists of Persian poetry.

Paris Theatre de la Ville has invited the Iranian vocalist Shahram Nazeri to perform at the valediction ceremony of the director of the theater Gérard Violette.

Paris Theatre de la Ville will witness a 10-minute performance of Iranian traditional music by Nazeri at the event, Mehr News Agency reported.

A number of artists from Germany, India, the US and some African countries will also perform at the ceremony.

Violette, who has been the director of Theater de la Ville since 1985, will hand the helm over to Emmanuel Demarcy-Mota this month.

In September 2007, Nazeri received the French Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres Medal for his significant role in advancing traditional Persian music.

Nazeri, popularly known as the ‘Persian Nightingale’, is scheduled to perform in Paris Theater de la Ville on June 12.

NAT/GM

Poland awards Iran’s Bald Hero

Iran’s Bald Hero puppet show has received the best puppeteer award of the 2008 VALISE International Theatre Festival in Lomza, Poland.

Director Samaneh Mirhosseini received the best puppeteer award and the honorary diploma of the festival, which was held from June 3 to 6, 2008.

Iran’s Apple Tree group performed the Bald Hero show on June 1st, 2008 in Warsaw to commemorate the international children’s day. The group re-performed the play for Polish orphans on June 2.

Bald Hero has participated in many international events and has won numerous awards including the Golden Mermaid award of Italy’s Dawn of Storytelling festival.

TE/HGH/AA

Ancient, Islamic sites found in Iran

Archeological excavations in Iran’s southwestern city of Dena have yielded 120 sites dating back from the prehistoric to Islamic eras.

“33 historic, 15 prehistoric and 72 Islamic sites were discovered during a two-month excavation project in the city’s northern and eastern parts,” said director of the Dena excavation team, Mohammad Javad Jafari.

“The historic sites mostly belong to the Sassanid era. Some of the prehistoric sites have been buried under sedimentary layers and are impossible to unearth,” he added.

Archeologists have found two Bronze Age cemeteries and two prehistoric caves which were probably used by shepherds in ancient times.

The newly found Islamic sites date back from the 5th and 6th centuries to the Safavid and Qajar eras.

Iranian archeologists had earlier found the ruins of a post-Achaemenid era palace in Sisakht, near the city of Dena.

TE/HGH/AA

Iran makes Hossein Nouri documentary

The Iranian filmmaker Panahbarkhoda Rezaee has made a documentary about the life and works of the prominent painter, Hossein Nouri.

Song of the Light depicts the physically disabled painter’s style, his artistic portrayal of religious themes using bright colors and the recurrence of butterflies in his works.

Nouri had painted a portrait of the Virgin Mary in front of Denmark’s embassy in Tehran during protests over the publication of insulting cartoons about Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) in Danish papers.

Panahbarkhoda Rezaee, who has made some 30 short films and documentaries, has participated in numerous international events including Ireland’s 52nd Corona Cork Film Festival.

The Old Manand the Rail and A Light in the Fog are among his better-known works.

TE/HGH/AA

Japan to screen Kiarostami’s films

The Euro Space cinema is slated to screen and review seven films by the celebrated Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami in Tokyo, Japan.

The Traveler, Where Is The Friend’s Home?, Bread and Alley, Homework, Close-Up, Life and nothing More and Ten will be screened during the one-week event.

A world-famous director, screenwriter and producer, Abbas Kiarostami has made over forty documentaries, feature-length and short films.

Kiarostami has received numerous international awards including an honorary doctorate of the University of Toulouse in 2007, and the Akira Kurosawa Award and the Prince Takamatsu Nomia medal from Japan.

Kiarostami has written a number of books including Cahiers du Cinema Livres and Walking with the Wind (Voices and Visions in Film).

TE/HGH

Majidi to click animation on Samarra

Iranian film director Majid Majidi has scripted the animation “Samarra” on children and the destruction of the holy Al-Askari mosque.

“The project, sponsored by Imam Sadeq University, aims to attract the attention of international viewers to the issue of bomb attack against the holy shrines,” the producer of the film, Majid Esmaili, said.

Esmaili said that the film has no intention of highlighting Shia or Sunni factions, but is aimed at consolidating Muslim unity. He stressed that the destruction of the holy site is at odd with religious and humane norms.

The script was written by Iran’s Oscar-nominated director Majid Majidi, and talks are underway with Majidi to direct the film, he said.

In 2006, the outstanding Iranian film director Majidi joined demonstrators in front of the UN office in Tehran, protesting international indifference to the destruction of the mausoleum of the holy Shia Imams at the Al-Askari mosque in Samara.

“When the Buddha sculptures were destroyed in Afghanistan – by the Taliban – the UN body protested. In the case of the holy shrines bomb blast, they did not even consider the shrines to be a historical monument,” Majidi said.

Esmaili said that a second animation on Samara will be on-screen within the next few months.

Dozens of people were killed and many more injured in the 2006 bomb attack on the holy shrine of two of Shia Islam’s Imams in Samarra, 100 kilometers north of Baghdad in 2006.

MRD/JG/DT

Achaemenid structure found in Iran

Iranian archeologists have found an unknown form of Achaemenid architecture at the country’s southwestern Gachsaran historical site.

“The initial documentation of the site’s stone structures showed that the method used for pedestal installation was never seen before,” said director of Gachsaran archeology team, Ehsan Yaqmayi.

The first phase of Gachsaran excavations also yielded numerous human shelters dating back to the Stone Age along with a number of Paleolithic and Islamic sites.

Archeologists also found the ruins of an Achaemenid house, numerous Sassanid castles and sites, large stone pedestals adorned with lotus designs and the ruins of some Islamic cities including Molqan.

TE/HGH