Majid Majidi’s film aims to change Islam’s image
TEHRAN: Award-winning Iranian filmmaker Majid Majidi says he hopes his epic on the childhood of the prophet will improve Islam’s “violent image”, but the religious epic risks angering many Muslims despite not showing the prophet’s face.
Majidi, 56, said extremists and jihadists such as the Islamic State group “have stolen the name of Islam”.
The huge production of the movie, Muhammad, cost up to an estimated $40 million and took more than seven years to complete. The 171-minute film, which stars many top Iranian actors, will open at the Montreal Film Festival.
Muhammad is the first part of a trilogy on the life of the prophet. The film depicts events before his birth and up to his teenage years, before he became prophet, which according to the Koran was at the age of 40.
While Iran has denounced cartoons of the prophet like those published by French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, Shia Muslims are generally more relaxed than Sunnis about depictions of religious figures.
While many planned screenings of Muhammad in Shia-majority Iran have already sold out, in the Sunni Muslim world the production has triggered controversy.
“Definitely, some countries like Saudi Arabia will have problems with this film but many Islamic countries -- including Turkey, Indonesia, Malaysia and many others in Southeast Asia -- have asked for the film,” Majidi said.
The first major production about the prophet’s life, Mohammad, Messenger of God from Syrian-American filmmaker Moustapha Akkad, had drawn criticism in the Muslim world when it was released in 1976.
In an attempt to allay the concerns of Muslims, Majidi looked for alternative ways of showing the prophet, and chose not to picture his face at all.
“To have the hero throughout the movie and not show his face once is a big challenge,” said Majidi .
Majidi and his Italian Oscarwinning cinematographer Vittorio Storaro came up with a special technique.
“We customised a steadi- cam especially for the prophet. Wherever we have the prophet in the film, we see through his point of view, even in his childhood,” Majidi said.
“Everyone is curious to see the prophet in the film, but you cannot see his face,” he said, adding that the prophet can only seen by his profile, or with his back to the camera. The next two films in the trilogy could prove even more controversial as the young hero is not yet a prophet in the first instalment.