A scene from 'Son of Dawn'

Shooting the film ’Son of Dawn’, which is about the life of the father of the Islamic Revolution, the late Imam Khomeini, has been completed after three years.
According to ISNA, those involved in the production of the film are now filming incidents related to his childhood and the film will be completed with the shooting of scenes from the last days of the Imam’s life in the hospital.
The shooting of the film, which is directed by renowned filmmaker Behrouz Afkhami, began in October 2004 and it will end by July 20.
Producer of the film, Mohammad Reza Sharafeddin, described the main features of the film as focusing on the Imam’s personality in a cinematic work, shooting several unmatched scenes and the two-year interruption to wait for the child actor to grow older to continue his role.
“Despite the fact that the undertaking was strenuous, when I look back on the film, I conclude that it was worth prolonging the shooting of the film,“ he noted.
Afkhami recalled that the project faced financial problems but they were solved following talks with the producer and sponsors of the film.
The main reason for delaying filming was the ability of the young actor who undertakes the role of Imam when he was three or four, he said.
The script of the film includes two separate sections, the second part of which concerns the life of seven- and eight-year-old Imam while the first deal with his childhood at the age of three of four, he noted.
“Earlier we were thinking of selecting another actor for the second section but Arman Iranpour, the young actor, played his role so brilliantly in the first part that we preferred to wait two years and film the second part with him assuming the same role,“ Afkhami concluded.

Ministry of Science, Research and Technology has allocated a sum of 1.1 billion rials for organizing Puppet Theater Festival.
Announcing this, dean of Cinema-Theater Faculty Habib Dehqanpour said at the news conference on the Tenth International Puppet Theater Festival that the event will be planned on the basis of the funds made available for the purpose.
The festival was initially funded by the students and University of Art and Cinema which initiated the event.
The ninth round of the event was assigned to Sureh University but due to irregularities the job of holding the event was entrusted to Arts University which is one of the acclaimed universities in the Middle East.
Dehqanpour further said that the festival is sponsored by the ministry and this year despite a gap of one and half a year, it will also be organized.
This year, workshops will be held independent of the festival and organized before the event takes place, he noted.
Puppet shows can be an effective mechanism for forging relations between Iran and neighboring countries, he noted.
Complaining about the process of holding the ninth round of the event, he said that the festival belongs to the Arts University and Sureh University failed to cope with it.

Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting will adopt new policies under which it will stop airing foreign programs on TV’s Channel 1, said an official.
Speaking to Fars, Kambiz Akhavan Safa, program planning director of Channel 1 further said, “We intend to completely do away with foreign productions in stages.“
To implement the plan, he said the first stage would be to show Iranian films on Friday evenings, adding that the next step will involve the production of telefilms and improving their quality.
He pointed out that although it may be more economical to broadcast foreign works, they have harmful impacts on the minds and culture of the youth.
The official referred to broadcasting up-to-date cinema films as another strategy and said, “This depends on the production capacity of Iranian cinema industry, since the broadcaster does not have any restrictions in airing them.“
Commenting on the criteria for broadcasting cinema productions on national TV, Akhavan said, “Such films should at least lack screening problems, and be compatible with the needs of the general audience.“ Many cinema films focus on themes which are unsuitable for the general audience, he observed.

Zoorkhaneh (traditional Iranian gymnasium) Music Festival will be held if veteran artists cooperate in the field.
Expressing this view, head of Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization’s Research Center for Traditional Arts Abdelmajid Sharifzadeh told CHN that one of the programs on the agenda this year is to conduct research on Zoorkhaneh music.
Citing coordination with veteran artists as one of the difficulties in holding the event, he further said, “We are still after organizing the festival but we have not yet come to an agreement with maestros in the field.“
Since Zoorkhaneh music has undergone drastic changes in the course of time, it is difficult to coordinate with veteran artists who performed such music using old styles, he noted.
He added that some researchers are conducting studies on Zoorkhaneh music.
Commenting on the reasons for paying attention to this genre of music, Sharifzadeh pointed out that the music performed in Zoorkhanehs is a special type of local music which has been transformed through its history and those specializing in the field have not received proper appreciation.
While the emergence of new music was not ineffective, he said, adding, “We are out to identify the origins and characteristics of Zoorkhaneh music and introduce them to the public.“
Traditions of Zoorkhaneh workout exercises inspired by legendary heroes instigate the habits of manliness among athletes.

Veteran Iranian actor Parviz Parastouei received the best actor award in the recently concluded RomaFictionFest, which is the world’s biggest international television festival.
According to IRNA, Parastouei received the award for his outstanding role in the Iranian TV serial ’Under the Blade’, directed by Mohammad Reza Honarmand.
Making its debut at the festival, the film also brought an award for Honarmand as the best director.
’Under the Blade’, which has a social theme, was highly appreciated by the audience as well as the festival’s panel of jury. The festival was held in the Italian capital from July 2-7.

Lebanon capital has been chosen as the ’2009 world book capital’, by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), PressTV reported.
UNESCO announced that naming Beirut as the ’2009 world book capital’ has been done because of the city’s special attention to cultural diversity, resistance, and dialogue between civilizations.
Referring to the city of Beirut during the session, Ko•chiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO said: with the existence of great challenges regarding peace and security, the responsibility for holding talks in the region is given to the new ’world book capital’ and the year 2009 is chosen as the time to create more security in the region.
This activity is done as a part of the efforts made by the cultural agency of UNESCO in order to support reading books.
Beirut is the ninth ’world book capital’, following Madrid in 2001, Alexandria in 2002, New Delhi in 2003, Antwerp in 2004, Montreal in 2005, Turin in 2006, Bogot? in 2007, and Amsterdam in 2008.

Niloufar Seyyedi, a five-year-old Iranian girl, has won the International Louis Fran�ois Visual Arts award for her drawing of a tree, PressTV reported.
The five-year-old won the award for her drawing of a tree with a red trunk. This year, Iran’s Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults submitted 46 works by its members to France to compete with thousands of artworks from at least 10 countries.
Niloufar was among the 13 participants from Lithuania, France, Russia, Romania, and Poland in her age group. The topic of this year was ’The tree, it is the life’.
The organization, which is named after the French founder and president of UNESCO clubs, has held drawing contests for youth since 1979.
Competition is open to young people aged 3 to 25.
Niloufar, who was born in Tehran in 2002, has only attended a three-month drawing course at the Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults.
According to her mother, she has a strong imagination and loves to draw all the time.

A play titled ’Made in Iran’ directed by Pantea Bahram, who is also acts in the play, went on stage in Niavaran Cultural Complex’s Persian Gulf Hall which has a seating capacity of 300. The play will be staged for 10 consecutive days at 7:30 p.m. every night.
The play earlier won the Miss Imatra Statue Prize from International Black and White Festival.
The cast also includes Amir Delavari, Sara Reihani and Dariush Faezi. Its associate directors are Roxana Bahram and Mohammad Reza Hosseinzadeh while Narmin Nazemi is the stage designer, Ava Soltani Arabshahi is the fashion designer.
Hamid Saedi, Mehran Khalili and Heidar Sajedi are in charge of live music performance.
The play was performed 26 times in Qashqaei Hall of Tehran City Theater last year.