TEHRAN: The award-winning director of Iran’s most expensive film, “Muhammad,” says he hopes it will improve Islam’s “violent image,” but the religious epic risks angering many Muslims despite not showing the Prophet’s face.
The huge production about the childhood of the Prophet cost an estimated $40 million and took more than seven years to complete.
The 171-minute film, which stars many top Iranian actors, premieres Wednesday in 143 theaters throughout Iran, the day before it opens the Montreal Film Festival.
In an interview in Tehran, director Majid Majidi said extremists and militants such as ISIS “have stolen the name of Islam.”
In the Western world, he continued, “an incorrect interpretation of Islam has emerged that shows a violent image, and we believe it has no link whatsoever” to the religion.
“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 Quran was at the age of 40.
While Iran has denounced cartoons of the Prophet – like those published by French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo – Shiites, who make up the vast majority of Iran’s population, are generally more relaxed about depictions of religious figures than Sunnis.
Many planned screenings of “Muhammad” in Iran have already sold out, but in the Sunni world the production has triggered controversy.
“Definitely, some countries like Saudi Arabia will have problems with this film,” Majidi said, “but many Islamic countries – including Turkey, Indonesia, Malaysia and many others in Southeast Asia – have asked for the film.”
The first major production about the Prophet’s life, “Mohammad, Messenger of God” from Syrian-American filmmaker Moustapha Akkad, also drew 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 depicting 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 major challenge,” said a smiling Majidi, whose “Children of Heaven” was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards in 1998.
Majidi and his Italian Oscar-winning cinematographer Vittorio Storaro came up with a special technique to address the challenge of the invisible hero.
“We customized a steadicam especially for the Prophet,” Majidi explained. “Wherever we have the Prophet in the film, we see through his POV [point of view], even in his childhood. Everyone is curious to see the Prophet in the film, but you cannot see his face,” he continued, adding that the Prophet could only be seen by his profile, or with his back to the camera.
Still, Majidi’s solution is not enough for experts at Egypt’s Al-Azhar, one of the region’s leading Sunni religious institutions.
In a statement, Al-Azhar “objected to portraying prophets and messengers in art,” as it is “tantamount to belittling their spiritual status.”
It opposes not only portraying the Prophets’ faces but also their voices.
“The actor who plays this role may later play a criminal, and viewers may associate these characters with criminality,” said Abdel Dayyem Nosair, adviser to Al-Azhar head Ahmed al-Tayyeb.
“Muhammad,” which is partially state funded, is being released on the anniversary of the birth of the eighth imam of Shiite Islam, Reza.
The next two films in the trilogy could prove even more controversial as the young hero is not yet a Prophet in the first installment.
“There are no disputes over this period” of the Prophet’s life, said Majidi, who has won international prizes including the Oecumenical Special Award in Montreal for promoting unity among religions.
“From the time he becomes a prophet, even dialogue would be very difficult to manage, but I believe it is still achievable,” the director said.
