Majidi pens screenplay for “Samarra”
Award-wining filmmaker Majid Majidi has penned the screenplay for the animation film “Samarra”, which focuses on the destruction of the Askariya Shrine of Samarra, Iraq.
Majidi will probably direct the animation himself, producer Majid Esmaeili told the Persian service of Fars, adding, “The project is sponsored by Tehran’s Imam Sadeq University and aims to attract global attention to the sad events of Samarra.”
He also stated the project mostly focuses on children of Samarra and will be presented to the world’s children with any religious background.
Esmaeili continued, “The project puts no emphasis on Shiite or Sunni beliefs, but promotes Islamic solidarity. We want to express our belief that the bombings and the destruction of the holy shrine were inhumane acts.”
Dozens were killed by the attack of February 2006 which hit Samarra’s Askariya Holy Shrine, also known as the Golden Mosque. The mosque holds the tombs of two imams of the Shiite Muslims including Imam Hassan Askari (AS), the 11th Imam and the father of Imam Mahdi (AS).
Majidi joined the demonstrators gathered in front of the UN office in Tehran last year protesting the world’s silence against the destruction of the mausoleum of the 11th Imam.
He also asked why many films were made on the statue of Buddha when it was destroyed by the Taliban in Afghanistan, but the world remained silent about the blasts of the holy shrines, “International organizations did not even consider it a historical monument, and this shows how oppressed the Shiites are.”
Majidi had also emphasized that it is the responsibility of artists and the Shiite communities not to remain silent and not to be indifferent to sacrilege against their beliefs.
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