Asadi Plans Film on Rey, the City That Was

Filmmaker and documentarian Mehdi Asadi, 45, is planning a documentary on the ancient city of Rey.

Rey, also spelled Rayy, was formerly a great city in Iran, remains of which lie on the eastern outskirts of the modern district of Shahr-e-Rey, located in southeast Tehran.

“I’m working on a project about Rey and its historical identity. The city had a glorious past full of significant historical events; but the past has been lost amid today’s disorganized and reckless urban development which is replacing the last historical remnants” of the ancient site, Mehr News Agency quoted the filmmaker as saying.

“Currently, I’m doing research and collecting pictorial information for the film. In the meantime, I’m also trying to find an investor to fund the project.”

In the recent years that he has lived in Rey (District 20), he says he has grown fond of the local ambiance and is therefore keen on making the documentary with the title, ‘Rey, the City That Was.’ Parts of the film have already been shot.

People know little about the region’s history, Asadi says. “When there’s talk of Rey, it’s usually the shrine of Shah Abdol Azim, a descendant of Imam Hassan (AS), the second Shia imam, that comes to the mind; while there is a hill in the middle of the city near a beautiful spring named ‘Cheshmeh-Ali,’ with human settlements dating back 7,000 years.”

Another part of the film will show the change in seasons in Rey, and with the onset of winter, the massive pollution from Tehran that descends on the region.

“During my stay in the district, I have witnessed its charms as well as ugliness, and the damage to its historical identity inflicted by urban development,” Asadi said, adding that “a part of our cultural-historical identity has been lost due to urbanization.”