Puppet opera film ’Macbeth’ was screened instead of the play by the same name by noted Iranian director Behrouz Gharibpour in Ukraine Puppet Theater.
Speaking to ISNA, Gharibpour who returned home recently said that due to lack of sponsor, performance of puppet operas ’Macbeth’, and ’Rostam and Sohrab’ was cancelled.
“However, since I wanted to focus on issues about Iranian puppet theater, I submitted the puppet opera film called ’Macbeth’ for screening and this was warmly welcomed,“ he said.
Due to lack of financial resources, performance of ’Rostam and Sohrab’ puppet opera at the inaugural ceremony for the 80th anniversary of Ukraine Theater Puppet in Kiev was dropped, he said.
The puppet opera is scheduled to be staged for five nights at Theater Academy in Kiev in January.
“During my stay in Kiev, I was after resources for ’Leili and Majnoon’ puppet opera,“ he noted.
Commenting on the possibility of performing the opera, Gharibpour also said that he is waiting for a response from Roudaki Foundation to perform the opera.
Arrangements have been made to stage the opera ’Nineva’ during the lunar month of Moharram, when the third Shiite Imam, Imam Hussein (AS) and 72 of his most loyal companions were martyred in the plains of Karbala, in present-day Iraq.

The late Kaveh Golestan

A collection of photos by the late Iranian photojournalist Kaveh Golestan in a book titled ’Kaveh Golestan - Recording the Truth in Iran’, was displayed at the Frankfurt International Book Fair, which ended on Sunday.
Iranian photojournalist Kaveh Golestan, who earned fame for depicting human sufferings, died when he stepped on a landmine in Iraq in April 2003 while taking pictures of civilian casualties in the US-led invasion of Iraq.
According to the website www.akkasee.com, the 160-page book was presented by a German publisher named Hatje Cantz. The book published by Hengameh Golestan, the artist’s wife includes collections featuring Islamic Revolution, Kurdestan, dervishes and war. The photos have not been displayed or published.
Hengameh Golestan, who has been seeking to publish the book since two years ago, told the site that after 1992, Kaveh Golestan had spoken to several publishers and wanted to print such a book himself and he had even selected the photos for it.
However, he was patient enough to follow the work and preferred to take photos until the time he could, she said.
She further stated that the book which includes only white-and-black photos will serve as a prelude to subsequent publications featuring photos on the above-mentioned topics.
Preface of the book written by Maziar Miri is followed by articles by Jim Muir, Mohammad Farnoud and Hojjatollah Sepahvand.

Arak Bazaar, the city’s most significant landmark with a 200-year history, is on the verge of destruction.
An expert on urban issues said that the economy of a majority of the households in the city is somehow dependent on the bazaar, or traditional marketplace. Located in the middle of Arak, the structure is as old as the city itself, khorasannews.com reported.
Originally a fortress, Arak was built to repulse attacks on passing caravans by highway robbers. The names of the streets leading to the bazaar indicate that the city was built for military purposes.
Another feature of the bazaar is that all the streets in the city lead to this landmark.
Despite the economic and cultural significance of the 22-hectare bazaar, it is facing the risk of destruction.
Although this year, a total of 700 million rials have been allocated for conducting maintenance works on Arak Bazaar, experts believe that the amount is meager for the restoration of the monument. They have put the amount necessary for restoring the edifice at 50 billion rials.
According to cultural heritage experts, Arak Bazaar, which includes 21 arcades and sections, has the same status as those in Tabriz, Zanjan and Tehran.
Funds earmarked for maintenance works of the bazaar, is sufficient only for repairing the top section of its gate.
Lack of welfare facilities, poor protection against disasters such as arson, unsuitable pavements and heavy traffic are some of the difficulties of the bazaar.

The play ’Room No. 6’, a play directed by Nasser Hosseini-Mehr, will be performed in Molavi Hall from October 24 until November 16.
According to ISNA, the play, narrated by Khosrow Hakim-Rabet and Nasser Hosseini-Mehr, is based on a story by the same name by the Russian author and playwright Anton Chekhov.
The cast includes Jafar Vali, Hassan Mehmani, Parviz Bozorgi, Ali Bigham, Gholamhossein Bahrami, Siavash Cheraghipour, Maziar Firouzmand and Kamiar Mohebbi.
Farinaz Sarraf and Behzad Sadiqi are assistant directors.
Bozorgi will also undertake stage designing while Farzad Adibi and Behnam Sadiqi will serve as poster designer and photographer respectively.
The plot of the play centers on events which take place in the psychological ward of a hospital.
The first consideration in adaptation was the economy of stage which reduced the cast to nine. The other criterion was the technicalities in staging the play.
“In the story, the writer saw the minds of persons and revealed them whereas we turned all the mentalities into actions on the stage,“ Hakim-Rabet said.
’Room No. 6’ deals with the spiritual and social destruction of the Russian community in a symbolic manner.

Best publications on addiction and media by non-governmental institutes will be awarded in the First Nationwide Addiction and Media Festival, slated for March.
Announcing this, secretary of the festival Hamid Serami told IRNA that the event will be sponsored by the Headquarters to Combat Drugs.
Given the importance of non-governmental institutes involved in prevention, treatment, reducing the impacts of maladies and its effective role in promoting culture, an independent section has been devoted to the creators of publications in the field.
The institutes should submit their publications no later than November 21, he said. Based on a bylaw for participating in the event, the works published in one of the local and nationwide press during March 21-November 21 are eligible for the event, said Serami.
Those intending to take part in the event can submit a maximum of five works in the form of news, news report, research and analytical papers, dialogue, article, note, critiques, editorials, satire and caricatures.
Serami, also an advisor to secretary general of the Headquarters to Combat Drugs, said that international role of Iran in fighting narcotics smuggling and modern methods in the fields of prevention, treatment, reducing the harms of addition will be the main topics of discussion during the event.
Commenting on the general subjects to be dealt with in the festival, he added that general topics have been classified under confronting, preventing and treating addiction.

Translator of ’Ulysses’, a controversial novel by Irish writer James Joyce, said the work is unprintable throughout the world.
Manouchehr Badiei, who translated the novel into Persian about 14 years ago, told Fars news agency that its publication has been always shrouded in uncertainty.
“The book has been the subject of controversy since its publication. Legal actions were brought against it in the US on grounds of immorality and was banned until 1993,“ he said.
Badiei maintained that the book, though one of the most important works of Modernist literature, is against social norms and this makes it unprintable not only in Iran but also in other countries.
Ulysses chronicles the passage through Dublin of its main character, Leopold Bloom, during an ordinary day on June 16, 1904. The title alludes to the hero of Homer’s Odyssey (Latinized into Ulysses), and there are many parallels, both implicit and explicit, between the two works.

Iran’s Academy of Arts will soon publish 14 titles of books about traditional Iranian arts which are sinking into oblivion.
The move will be undertaken as part of programs to hold the congress on ’Forgotten Iranian Art Treasures’, slated for December 16-17, reported honar.ac.ir.
The books include ’The History of Engraving’ written by Mohammad Javad Jodai, ’Scarf Knitting in Kerman’ by Iman Zakariari, ’Yazd Zilo (pileless carpet)’ by Javad Ali Mohammadi, ’A Research on Turkmen Needlework’ by Mehri Shamisi and Mohammad Karim Mottaqi.
’Traditional Dyeing’ by Seyyed Abbas Sayyahi and ’Paintings of Holy Mausoleums’ by Ali Asghar Mizaei-Mehr, are also among the 14 books which will be published under the Simorgh Treasure plan.
The plan seeks to publish 30 titles of books on historical and artistic themes concurrent with the congress.

Veteran Hollywood director Brian De Palma has lashed out at what he calls the censorship of his new film about Iraq and the chilling effect of corporate America on the war.
De Palma’s film, ’Redacted,’ is based on the true story of a group of U.S. soldiers who raped and killed a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and murdered members of her family. It has stunned audiences for its shocking images and rattled American conservative commentators before its U.S. opening next month, reports Reuters.
But De Palma says he is upset that the documentary-style drama--its name derived from his view that news coverage of the war has been incomplete--has been censored.
The film’s distributor, Magnolia Pictures, ordered the faces of dead Iraqis shown in a montage of photographs at the end of the film be blacked out.
“I find it remarkable. ’Redacted’ got redacted. I mean, how ironic,“ De Palma, who made his name directing violent films like “Scarface“ and “The Untouchables,“ said in an interview. “I fought every way I could in order to stop those photographs from being redacted and I still lost.“
De Palma has loudly argued the issue in public, including sparring with Eamonn Bowles, the president of Magnolia, during a recent forum at the New York Film Festival. Bowles countered that possible future lawsuits by the families of the dead Iraqis meant the photos had to be edited.