Qadakchian making Iranian Hercules biopic

Director Hamid Qadakchian is currently making a documentary film on life story of the world’s four-time and twice Olympic +105kg weightlifting gold medalist Hossein Rezazadeh.

Shooting began last week and veteran filmmaker Mehdi Fakhimzadeh is acting as an advisor to the project, producer Hamid Hossein-Ali told the Persian service of IRNA on Monday.

Iran’s Hossein Rezazadeh stands on the podium during the awarding ceremony for the men’s over 105kg weightlifting competition at Athens Olympic Games in Greece, August 25, 2004. He won the gold medal and set a new world record.

Entitled “Cold as Steel, Warm as Fire”, the 130-minute biopic will feature Rezazadeh from birth. Shooting will be completed at the end of the upcoming Olympic Games 2008 in Beijing, in which he will be competing, he added.

Nicknamed “The Iranian Hercules”, Rezazadeh invokes Hazrat Abolfazl (AS), the brother Imam Hussein (AS).

Giving the exclamation of “Ya Abolfazl” when he appears on weightlifting platform and having it printed on his weightlifting dress has become his trademark.

Rezazadeh currently holds the world records in weightlifting’s super heavyweight class in the snatch, clean, jerk and total. He became the first Iranian athlete to win two Olympic gold medals