TEHRAN – Director and writer Davud Mirbaqeri is writing a screen adaptation of the bestselling novel “The Immortal” on the tragedy of Ashura.

Mirbaqeri is best known for religious TV series such as “Imam Ali (AS)” and “Mokhtarnameh”; the latter was about an uprising organized by Mokhtar Saqafi after the events of Ashura, the 10th of Muharram, to take revenge against the killers of Imam Hussein (AS).

Written by Sadeq Karamyar, “The Immortal” was published in two editions, one in the form of a novel and the other in the form of a screenplay, which was never changed into a film.

Speaking in a press release published on Wednesday, producer Mohsen Ali-Akbari said that Mirbaqeri is writing his own script based on the novel, and Shahriar Bahrani, the director of the acclaimed movies “Saint Mary” and “The Kingdom of Solomon”, will make the film.

“Despite his immersion in the TV series ‘Salman Farsi’ master Mirbaqeri agreed to write the screenplay due to his love of Imam Hussein (AS),” he noted.

“Undoubtedly, his series ‘Mokhtarnameh’ is the best TV production ever produced by the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting and we are really proud of having him with our project,” he added. 

“The story of ‘The Immortal’ has been exactly documented with concrete facts about the Battle of Karbala,” Ali-Akbari said.

“The story begins with Imam Hussein’s journey from Medina to Kufa, during which many people join him and are influenced by him, and the developments make the story really interesting,” he added.

He referred to “Safir” and “The Fateful Day” as the sole two Iranian films made about the tragedy of Ashura following the victory of the Islamic Revolution, and said, “Our cinema is suffering from a scarcity of films about the subject.”

“Several countries in the region have produced movies on Imam Hassan (AS) and Imam Hussein (AS), which have been made maliciously and are crammed with a gross distortion of historical facts; therefore we decided to change the novel into a film,” he added.

Ali-Akbari called “The Immortal” a big-budget project and Iran’s third movie ever made about the battle of Karbala, and said, “We need the country’s cultural managers’ collaboration to make an outstanding work for the Iranian cinema.” 

Iranian director Ahmadreza Darvish made “Hussein, Who Said No” in 2008 about the uprising of Imam Hussein (AS) against the Umayyad dynasty in 680 CE. However, it never was screened for the public due to protests from ulemas and certain people who slammed the movie over its depiction of some Shia saints.

Photo: Davud Mirbaqeri (R) directs Farborz Arabnia in a scene from “Mokhtarnameh”.

MMS/YAW