Saturday, November 27, 2010

The Kingdom of Solomon

We went to a local cinema to see  The Kingdom of Solomon, tonight. The film which has been recently produced in Iran , is screened in many cinemas in Tehran. We went to Azadi Cinema which is a large cinema theater with more than 6  cinema halls in one building. The cinema was built only two years ago by the Tehran Municipality.The is film written and directed by Shahriar Bahrani , the same director who created The Holy Mary ( Maryam). The Kingdom of Solomon is written on the basis of verses in the Holy Quran dealing with the Prophet Solomon or Suleiman. The film has employed very strong special effects and is considered to be successfully directed to give a sensation of power and dominion.

The film mostly deals with the battles that  Solomon  has waged against the devils and jinns in favor of the Children of Israel (Jacob).  The film does not deal with all aspects of Solomon's life as narrated in the Quran. It deals only with the more violent dimensions while , the close relationship of  Solomon with nature and animals in particular, is overlooked. The beautiful verses related to the encounter between the Queen of Sheba or Belghis and Solomon is also not portrayed in this movie. Certain observers believe that the film has been used as a political weapon against the opposition groups who protested against the Government last year. I believe some of the conversations do seem to convey such a  political mentality. Overall, I enjoyed the film and I think it is a step forward for the film industry in Iran.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I am one of the crew who was in this project from early days, The producer Mr.Faravardeh insist many times in medias this movie had started in Mr.Khatami's government by special support of Mr.Heidarian & Rezadad (former cinema heads in Mr.Khatami's government)and the crew mostly doesn't follow political favors of new government

Mehdi said...

Salamo alaikom,

I'm outside Iran and yet I seem to know more about your country's movie production! The movie is the first part of a Trilogy! And as you might have guessed, rightly, by now there are two more parts to be followed after this one. The other two parts will address the issues that you raised.
In this part, ie. part I, the movie tries to portray why Prophet Solomon received some extraordinary powers from God SWT. That is to stand against the Jinns/demons that tried to infiltrate into the Jewish society back then.

Please, next time before writing something, check the background information readily available, and then base your baseless accusations against someone!

And BTW, the couple of millions who oppose the Islamic Republic will not succeed, they are just some useless beings that wont be able to succeed, not in this nor in the second life!

Allahu Akbar,
Khamenei Rahbar!