TEHRAN -- Renowned filmmaker Majid Majidi was among the five world film directors invited by the Chinese government to create a short documentary film to introduce the city of Beijing.

His “Colors Fly” conveys the message of peace, friendship and hope to people, and the colors are symbols of different values in his production.
Majidi gave some details about his production to the Persian service of IRNA on Friday and said, “It was two years ago when the mayor of Beijing as the major project executive asked his people’s opinion in a poll to select five world-class directors.
“The poll contained the list of directors whose movies were screened in China’s cinemas or aired on national TV channels. My “Children of Heaven” was aired 17 times over the past years on national TV channels and I was selected as one of the first filmmakers,” Majidi stated.
Italian Giuseppe Tornatore, Frenchman Patrice Leconte, Englishman Daryl Goodrich and Lau Wai-Keung from Hong Kong were the other four directors.
“I made several exploratory trips to Beijing. I reviewed various topics and what attracted me the most was the active presence of the youth in China,” Majidi explained.
“The changes in China were huge. On the other hand, I had only five minutes to depict the 5000 year-old history of China. It was a hard job and different ideas came to my mind, and I finally chose a school as the major theme of my work.
“The school dated back to about 105 years ago, something as old as the history of Olympics. This turned out to be a good coincidence. The film begins with the voice of the schoolmaster announcing the good news of the centennial celebration of the school.
“Colors also play a major role in China. Yellow is the color of history and monarchy, red is the national color of China, purple is the color of traditional ceremonies, blue is the color of modernity; and green is the color of nature. With the exception of purple, these five colors are the same as the colors of the five circles of the Olympics. Of course, I used purple instead of black.
Majidi went on to say, “A budget of one million dollars was dedicated to the project and I must admit that I had all the facilities I needed, including a large staff. We were able to accomplish the task within 11 days with the collaboration of Chinese officials.”
The “Vision Beijing Project” started in 2006 by the Beijing Foreign Cultural Exchange Association and the Information Office of the Beijing Municipal Government to introduce to the world the city that is hosting the Olympic Games this year.
Other productions are Tornatore’ “Reunion”, Leconte’s “Beijing–A Film Impressionistic”, Goodrich’s “Belief” and Lau Wai-Keung’s “Color, Fragrance -- Taste Beijing”.