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‘Shahrzad’ Cast, Crew Celebrated

‘Shahrzad’ Cast, Crew Celebrated
‘Shahrzad’ Cast, Crew Celebrated

A ceremony to celebrate the successful conclusion of the series ‘Shahrzad’ was held at Tehran’s Milad Tower on Sunday (May 15) in the presence of its cast and crew as well as artists, cultural figures and a large audience.

The series was made for the home video network and the episodes released every week in the market during the past seven months. Due to the attractive story, well-known figures in the cast and a professional team behind the camera, the series appealed largely to the viewers.

Due to its popularity, the makers have started writing the second season, which is currently underway.

Receiving the ‘Love and Hope’ statuette, Hassan Fathi, renowned director of the work, said it was one of his wishes to make such a series which would “receive huge public welcome and help boost the home video network.”

He pointed to the five main characters in the series and said, “They all exist within us and that is our eternal dilemma to choose between love and kindness or greed and egotism,” Mehr News Agency reported.

Ahmad Masjed-Jamei, member of Tehran City Council, talked about the background of Shahrzad in Persian literature.

“Shahrzad is our mythical character and a symbol of love and hope. In ancient Iranian stories, she is a figure who tames a brutal man through the power of love,” he said.

In ‘One Thousand and One Nights’, a classic collection of Middle Eastern and South Asian folk tales, Shahrzad is the main character; a ruler’s wife who continues telling him stories for a thousand nights to postpone his decision on her execution. Although the series storyline is different from that of the classic book, its main character Shahrzad leads the story by her logic and affection.

Viewers in the country and abroad, as it was available for purchase online, eagerly looked forward to the release of new episodes every Monday to follow the engaging story and fate of the characters. The 28-episode series, a romance-crime melodrama narrated in a historical setting in the early 1950s, was captivating till the end.

The story is about university students Shahrzad and Farhad who decide to get married. Following a series of incidents, Farhad is arrested and although innocent is sentenced to death.

Bozorg Agha, a man of wealth and power who leads a mafia-like syndicate and for whom Shahrzad and Farhad’s fathers work, saves Farhad’s life on one condition; that Shahrzad marries his son-in-law Qobad as his second wife. The series detailed each character’s life.

Mahmoud Dowlatabadi, Naser Malek-Motiee, Parviz Parastui, Hamid Farokhnejad and Mahnaz Afshar were other artists who presented the ‘Love and Hope’ statuette to the four main actors, Ali Nassirian, Taraneh Alidoosti, Shahab Hosseini and Mostafa Zamani.

Veteran actor Malek-Motiee, 86, said, “I have never envied anyone in my life until tonight. I congratulate Fathi and Ali Nassirian, 81, since he really deserved his role as Bozorg Agha”.

The rest of the cast included Parinaz Izadyar, Mahmoud Pakniat, Mehdi Soltani, Abolfazl Pourarab, Jamshid Hashempour, Fariba Motekhases and Houman Barqnavard among others.

 

Financialtribune.com