{"id":1089,"date":"2008-01-18T19:45:00","date_gmt":"2008-01-19T03:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2008\/01\/iranian-biblical-films-from-jesus-to-joseph\/"},"modified":"2016-09-09T16:11:41","modified_gmt":"2016-09-09T23:11:41","slug":"iranian-biblical-films-from-jesus-to-joseph","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2008\/01\/iranian-biblical-films-from-jesus-to-joseph.html","title":{"rendered":"Iranian biblical films — from Jesus to Joseph"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>
Two days ago<\/a>, I linked to an article at Breitbart.com on Jesus, the Spirit of God<\/i>, an Iranian production that just might be the first film to tell the story of Jesus from the Muslim point of view. Curiously, that article seems to be gone<\/a> now, though you can still read the 196 comments<\/a> that were posted in response<\/i> to the article.<\/span><\/p>\n

But never mind; in addition to the sections I quoted here two days ago, Variety<\/a><\/i> now has its own story on the film. Some excerpts:<\/p>\n

LONDON \u2014 Fresh from tackling World War II and the Holocaust in local blockbuster \u201cZero Degree Turn,\u201d (Variety, June 6, 2007), Iran\u2019s state broadcaster IRIB (Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting) is turning to religion as the subject of a pair of big budget skeins.<\/p>\n

First up is the $5 million \u201cJesus, Spirit of God,\u201d helmed by Nader Talebzadeh, which recounts the life of Jesus Christ through Muslim eyes.<\/p>\n

Muslims believe that Jesus was a prophet and the spirit of God, as the pic\u2019s title states, although not the son of God as stated in Christian theocracy.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Brief aside: \u201cTheocracy<\/a>\u201c? Not \u201ctheology<\/a>\u201c? Considering the article is about Iran, that may be a Freudian slip of sorts. Anyhoo:<\/p>\n

IRIB\u2019s production and sales arm Cima Media Intl. (CMI) is handling the project, which will be released as both a 100-minute feature and a 20-episode TV skein to be aired later this year.<\/p>\n

The abridged theatrical version of the project bowed in Tehran cinemas last year, where it garnered a moderate reception from Iranian auds more used to commercial laffers, romances and war pics.<\/p>\n

Talebzadeh even hand-delivered a copy of the film to Mel Gibson\u2019s mansion in Malibu last year. The Iranian was met by the security guards who promised to deliver the film to \u201cThe Passion of the Christ<\/a>\u201d helmer although Talebzadeh never heard back from Gibson.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is important to show our history before the Islamic revolution,\u201d said CMI managing director Mohammed Reza Abbasian. \u201cThese episodes of religious history and Iranian history are very popular with Iranian audiences. We want to show the opinions of Islam toward the prophet. This story came from the Koran without any changes. You could call it Jesus through Islam\u2019s lens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Talebzadeh\u2019s film is a faithful adaptation of the life of Jesus \u2014 who is depicted with flowing blond hair and fair skin \u2014 familiar to Western auds with one notable exception. Where films such as \u201cThe Passion\u201d went to great lengths to re-create the crucifixion of Jesus, Talebzadeh\u2019s film sees Jesus saved from the cross by God and taken straight to heaven.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The article then concludes with this interesting revelation:<\/p>\n

CMI execs have even bigger plans for their follow-up skein, a $20 million version of the life of Joseph and his multi-colored coat, helmed by Farajollah Salahshoor, that is set to be one of Iran\u2019s biggest-budget productions ever.<\/p>\n

The costly skein could be described as a passion project for its producers, as they will have little chance to ever recoup their money back from foreign sales.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have tried to sell it to Arab TV stations, but they say that they cannot show the face of the prophets, and, at the same time, it\u2019s not good for European TV,\u201d said Abbasian. \u201cThe Iranian government is spending its money on the project, but it wasn\u2019t supposed to cost this much.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you start a project you say it will cost $2 million, but we wanted to film this on 35mm not video so it\u2019s become more expensive. We can\u2019t stop the project now. We have to spend more money so we can save the money we already spent. Next time, though, we will film with HD or Digi-Beta.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It\u2019s interesting that these presumably Shi\u2019ite filmmakers would be tackling the story of Joseph next \u2014 and having trouble selling their film to presumably Sunni TV stations that say they cannot show the faces<\/a> of the prophets \u2014 since another movie inspired by the story of Joseph was produced in Egypt over a dozen years ago and became very controversial, even though it changed all the names and was directed by a non-Muslim. It was called The Emigrant<\/i>, and I wrote about it here<\/a> \u2014 in a blog post about the controversy over another non-Muslim\u2019s efforts to make a movie about Jesus<\/i> in his native Egypt. (I wonder what ever became of that<\/i> project?)<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two days ago, I linked to an article at Breitbart.com on Jesus, the Spirit of God, an Iranian production that just might be the first film to tell the story of Jesus from the Muslim point of view. Curiously, that article seems to be gone now, though you can still read the 196 comments that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1116,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[728],"class_list":["post-1089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-joseph"],"yoast_head":"\nIranian biblical films -- from Jesus to Joseph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Two days ago, I linked to an article at Breitbart.com on Jesus, the Spirit of God, an Iranian production that just might be the first film to tell the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2008\/01\/iranian-biblical-films-from-jesus-to-joseph.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Iranian biblical films -- from Jesus to Joseph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Two days ago, I linked to an article at Breitbart.com on Jesus, the Spirit of God, an Iranian production that just might be the first film to tell the\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2008\/01\/iranian-biblical-films-from-jesus-to-joseph.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"FilmChat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-01-19T03:45:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-09-09T23:11:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_MwnH1kpbPRM\/R5F46tOQH_I\/AAAAAAAABC8\/NGUqPRE0MqU\/s400\/jesusspiritofgod2.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter T. 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