Veteran Poet Dies

Poet Khalil Omrani, who was mostly known for his religious compositions, died of a stroke at 48 at a Tehran hospital on Sunday.
He went into a coma after heart failure on November 26 and died of a stroke on Sunday morning, his son, Iman, told ISNA.
He was born and raised in Dayyer, a port near Bandar Bushehr in Persian Gulf. He was admitted into the Bushehr Teacher Education Center in 1982. Two years later, he retuned to his hometown and began a career teaching at a school where he had studied.
In 1995, he relocated to Tehran and began teaching at a high school and shortly afterwards, his first collection, “The Forgotten Pearls”, was published.
His credits also include “The song of the Presence”, “The Weeping Heart of Bam” and several other collection.

Skyfall’ Reclaims Top Spot

Sam Mendes’ James Bond pic ‘Skyfall’ reclaimed the No. 1 spot at the weekend box office with $11 million, while Gerard Butler’s new soccer-themed romantic comedy ‘Playing for Keeps’ flopped with $6 million.
‘Skyfall’ continues to shatter records, becoming the highest-grossing movie released by Sony with $918 million in worldwide tickets sales, beating ‘Spider-Man 3’ ($890 million). Sony is MGM’s distribution and marketing partner on the film, THR wrote.
In North America, ‘Skyfall’ unseated ‘The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn -- Part 2’, which had topped the chart for three consecutive weekends. From MGM and Sony, Skyfall’s North American cume is now $261.2 million, not far behind Breaking Dawn 2’s $268.7 million total.
DreamWorks Animation and Paramount’s holiday-themed ‘Rise of the Guardians’ climbed up the chart to No. 2, grossing $10.5 million and down only 21 percent. The 3D toon, earning $61.9 million domestically to date, has been a disappointment, but DWA and Paramount believe the kids pic will have especially strong legs throughout the holidays.
Overseas, ‘Rise of the Guardians’ earned $26 million from 58 markets for an international total of $90.5 million and worldwide haul of $152.7 million.
Summit Entertainment’s ‘Breaking Dawn 2’ came in No. 3 for the weekend, grossing $9.2 million. Steven Spielberg’s ‘Lincoln’ followed closely with $9.1 million. The historical drama has now grossed $97.3 million for DreamWorks and Disney.
Fox’s ‘Life of Pi’, directed by Ang Lee, placed No. 5 with $8.3 million for a domestic total of $60.9 million.

Egyptian, Asian Antiquities On Show

Arte Primitivo announced its December 12th-14th auction of Tribal and pre-Columbian Art, Classical, Egyptian and Asian Antiquities.
There are over 500 lots and the auction is viewable at www.arteprimitivo.com where one can find lot descriptions, multiple images, starting bid/reserves and any updated information.
There is a printed catalog for the auction in which the first 284 lots are published. The second session, and balance of the auction, is on-line only. The entire auction, however, is held on-line, Art Daily said.
Among the highlights is the cover piece; a rare black and white painted Maya vase with Peter G. Wray provenance and publication by Justin Kerr in The Maya Vase Book. Another ex. Peter Wray Maya bowl bears a band of 13 beautifully and intricately painted hieroglyphics. Several other Maya examples are standouts, including: a plumbate vessel depicting the rain god Choc with a turkey protruding from his nose; and a two-part Teotihuacan incensario with central face medallion and appliqué decorations.
There is a lovely selection of fine West Coast Mexican pieces from Colima, Nayarit and Jalisco, including several Chinesco figures from the estate collection of Dr. J.D. Blackburn, San Antonio; a matched pair of tall Nayarit figures, ex. Matilda Graff, Detroit; a Colima seated shaman figure, ex. Jules Berman (Kahlua fame), and several pieces from the Arthur B. Krim collection, NYC, of which a Jalisco sheep-faced variety figure bears prominence.
One of the featured African sculptures is a Fang “Byeri” figure, published in “Cosas del Bosque Fang”, Madrid, 1998, and also registered in the Yale-GVR archives. Plus a dozen or so examples of African Art from the collection of the NYC architect, Herb Levine. Among the modest but fine selection of Antiquities is a lovely Greek red-figure painted bell krater from the 4th century B.C., having sharp, vivid and finely painted detail.

(Photo by Marzieh Mousavi)

The Sixth Bread Industry Exhibition is underway in Tehran

Belgium Displays Persian Artworks

An exhibition of various artworks created by Iranian artists is underway at the Cantara Art Gallery in Brussels.
The exhibition titled ‘Unexposed’ displays the works in diverse forms of art which have not been exhibited so far.
Some 80 works of paintings, photos and installation created by 40 female artists who were born between 1971 and 1991 have been showcased at the event, Mehr News Agency reported.
The exhibited works were selected from among many submitted creations by 400 Iranian artists.
Delara Pakdel, Maryam Muliaee, Samin Abarqouei, Alieh Abedini, Asareh Akkasheh, Zahra Madani, Sahar Mokhtari, Shima Sohrabi and Atusa Vahdani are among the participating artists.
The exhibition was organized by a Belgian-based Iranian Fery Malek-Madani, who founded and runs the non-profit Art Cantara Gallary.
Unexposed exhibition in Brussels is scheduled to run until December 25, and later it will be held in Athens in February, 2013.
The show will be also presented in the Polish capital Warsaw from April 15 through June 15, 2013.

Iran Film Week In Warsaw

Iran’s Visual Media Institute has arranged to hold an Iranian film week in the Polish capital Warsaw in an attempt to introduce Iranian cinema and Persian culture.
Organized in collaboration with Iran’s cultural office in Warsaw and Poland’s Filmmaker’s Society, the event will kick off on December 13, 2012.
A number of Iranian filmmakers and actors along with some Polish cultural officials and cineastes are to attend the opening ceremony that will be held in Warsaw Culture Cinema, Press TV said.
While the award winning director Reza Mirkarimi’s 2005 film So Close, So Far, is set to open the week, some 14 Iranian cinematic productions are slated to be screened at the event.
Bahram Tavakkoli’s ‘Here Without Me’, Ali Rafie’s ‘Aqa Yousef’, Ebrahim Hatamikia’s ‘Invitation’, Manouchehr Hadi’s ‘Someone Wants to Talk With You’ are some of the Iranian representatives at this cultural project.
The movies will be screened with Polish subtitles in the two movie theaters during one-week program.
Film review and discussion sessions are also scheduled to be held on the sidelines of the event.

Majidi’s Flick Heading to Italy

Arts & Culture Desk

Acclaimed Iranian director Majid Majidi said the technical procedures for his latest film ‘Muhammad (PBUH)’ will be done in Italy.
Announcing this, he also said that shooting of parts of the film is over, and the rest will be filmed in South Africa.
Three-time Academy Award winning Italian cameraman Vittorio Storaro will also collaborate with Majidi.
Storaro who has great projects such as ‘Apocalypse Now’, ‘Reds’ and ‘The Last Emperor’, visited Iran last year to meet with the Iranian cast and crew.
Majidi’s film will focus on Prophet Muhammad’s (PBUH) life from childhood until prophethood. The first draft of the screenplay was co-authored by Majidi and Iranian filmmaker and screenwriter Kambuzia Partovi.
Historical documents and facts have been compiled with the help of scholars, historians and clerics from different countries including Iran, Morocco, Tunisia, Lebanon, Iraq and Algeria over a year.
Set decorator of Emir Kusturica’s tragic-farce ‘Underground’ Aleksandar Denic is also set to collaborate on the project.

Prophet Muhammad (PBUH):

Verily, to honor an old man is showing respect to God.