‘Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)’ to premiere in 2014

Oscar-nominated Iranian filmmaker Majid Majidi’s religious blockbuster Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) is scheduled to premiere in the coming year.

The film which is currently passing its post-production phase has been completed after three years of research and production process.

While the main parts of the film was shot in Iran, Majidi along with his team traveled to Africa and shot few sections of the project in the city of Bela-Bela in the Limpopo Province of South Africa.

The movie focuses 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.

American filmmaker and Hollywood visual effects supervisor Scott E. Anderson along with several other world renowned cineastes contributed to Majidi’s great cinematic project.

Three-time Academy Award winning Italian cameraman Vittorio Storaro also collaborated with Majidi in his recent cinematic rendition.

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.

The cast members were selected under the supervision of Majidi and Italian makeup artist Giannetto De Rossi who collaborated in the grand project.

Historical documents and facts have been compiled with the help of scholars, historians and clerics from different countries including Iran, Morocco, Tunisia, Lebanon, Iraq and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.

Produced by Mohammad Mehdi Heidarian, the film has been set to be released in Persian, Arabic and English.

Majid Majidi is an internationally and critically acclaimed Iranian film director, film producer, and screen writer whose films have touched on many themes and genres and has won many international awards.

Born in 1959, Majidi started his artistic life at the age of 14 with acting in amateur theater groups. He studied art at the Institute of Dramatic Art in Tehran.

His acclaimed film, Children of Heaven (1997), was the first Iranian film to have been nominated for an Academy Award (Best Foreign Language Film) in1999.

Majidi’s 1999 film The Color of Paradise was chosen one of the best 10 films of the year in the US in 2000.