Culture

Iranwire – The lead protagonists in this film are Kurdistan and the kolbars of Kurdistan. In one of Iran’s most remote, deprived and little-understood regions, every day hundreds of people – from 12-year-old boys to men in their 70s – strap up to 50 kilos’ worth of goods to their backs and set out on foot, singing, on the days-long …

screendaily.com – Iranian director Keywan Karimi hasn’t had much luck when it comes to attending film festivals. When his feature Drum was screening at Venice and elsewhere in 2016, he was locked up in Tehran’s Evin Prison, serving a sentence for “propaganda against the State.” This stemmed from his 2013 documentary, Written On The City, about political graffiti in Tehran. He was finally …

PayvandNews – The Iran Heritage Foundation is pleased to announce the recent publication of a book entitled Studies in Ancient Persia and the Achaemenid Period, edited by John Curtis, the Academic Director of IHF. The book is published by James Clarke & Co and has been sponsored by IHF. The publication has an appreciation and biography of Terence Mitchell, Keeper of …

Al-Monitor – Part of a famed arch that was part of an ancient Persian palace in Iraq collapsed around the beginning of the year, and Iran has expressed its readiness to help rebuild it. Iran’s minister of cultural heritage, Ali Asghar Mounesan, said Iranian archaeologists are ready to help rebuild the ancient Taq Kasra arch following the collapse of a section of it. He said, “The problems Iraq has been going through are …

VOA – Iran has sentenced a film director to an effective three-year prison term for alleged national security offenses, including his work on a decade-old documentary about an Iranian journalist who later became a prominent anti-government activist, according to the director’s sister. Speaking to VOA Persian from her home in Canada on Tuesday, Neda Mihandoust said Iranian authorities had sent …

Radiozamaneh – A legal dispute between an Ivy League university and a foundation in New York has endangered the future of one of the most important academic projects on Iranian Civilization: Encyclopedia Iranica. The project is an encyclopedia that has been assembled and published at  Columbia University for decades. Encyclopaedia Iranica Columbia University in the City of New York,, the …

Iranwire.com – Although the ruling clerics of Iran have been promoting their values and beliefs for more than 40 years, they are increasingly expressing their concern about the decline of these beliefs among Iranians. Recently, a quarterly journal affiliated with the Ministry of Islamic Guidance described lifestyles in the city of Tehran into five categories – unrestricted, unfavorable, deviant, religious, favourable, …

iranwire.com – The Islamic Republic of Iran has generally viewed celebrity stardom in the context of how it can be restricted as a security concern. Over time, however, this approach has evolved. A recent “strategic report” on celebrities in Iran has shed light on the Iranian government’s changing attitude to the phenomenon of celebrity – and admonishes officials for their …

The Iranian National Commission for UNESCO honored actress Jaleh Olov, Iranian actor and voice actor with a lifetime achievement award on the margins of the Selfie 20 Short Film Festival in Tehran on Monday. The 93-year-old Olov expressed her thanks to the organizers in a video message screened during the closing ceremony of the festival, and said, “I am proud of …

Payvand.com – Veteran Director and Scriptwriter Kambuzia Partovi died of COVID-19 on Tuesday. He was 65. Partovi, the prominent director of children’s cinema and scriptwriter of many films, including Muhammad: The Messenger of God, died on Tuesday morning in Day Hospital in Tehran after a short illness due to the infection of coronavirus. Kambuzia Partovi(February 8, 1956 – November 24, …