Director threatens to take his name off of “Morning Son”

The dubbings and the music recorded by Oruj Films have not satisfied the desires of Afkhami, who currently lives in self-imposed exile in Canada.

The production of “The Morning Son”, a biopic about the founder of the Islamic Republic, Imam Khomeini, was completed in 2007 when Afkhami was still residing in Iran.

“After I left Iran, they did whatever they felt like to the film. If I need to, I’ll write to everyone saying that I really didn’t direct it.”

“Voice and music are more important than images in this film and I recorded both the dubbings and the music for it. They even altered the final cut of the film, which was carried out by Seifollah Daad,” Afkhami told the Persian service of ISNA on Sunday. 

“If the dubbings and music are cut out of the film, I will never allow them to screen the film with my name on it,” he added.

However, Afkhami’s remarks have been disputed by producer Mohammadreza Sharafoddin.

“The version edited by Daad has not been discarded and Afkhami himself supervised the revised editing of the film while he was still in Iran. In fact, he approved the music that had been composed for the film,” Sharafoddin said.

“Only the dubbings and sound effects were done in his absence,” he added.

He said that he insists that Afkhami’s name remains on the film.

According to Sharafoddin, Afkhami is scheduled to travel to Iran in late October. He asked Afkhami to speed up his travel plans to do a final check on the film.

Oruj Films former director Mehdi Aragni had previously said that the production of the film, which began in 2004, cost 35 billion rials (over $3.5 million).

The brilliant acting of Arman Iranpur, who plays Imam Khomeini in childhood, persuaded the film crew to halt production in 2005 for a minimum of one year in order to use Iranpur as he aged in another stage of the film.

Hadi Heidari and Abdorreza Akbari have been cast in the roles of Imam Khomeini in youth and adulthood respectively.

Hedyeh Tehrani, Atila Pesyani, Mohammadreza Sharifinia, and Elika Abdorrazzaqi play other key roles.

Afkhami had been criticized for giving the role of Imam Khomeini’s mother to Iranian superstar Hedyeh Tehrani.

Afkhami has recently begun the shooting of his second film “This Is Not My House” in Canada. He has previously directed “The End of the World” in the country.

Photo: Behruz Afkhami (C) directs actor Abodorreza Akbari (L) and cameraman Farrokh Majidi in a scene of “The Morning Son”.