TEHRAN -- The Iranian Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance granted a conditional screening license on Sunday to “Fire Keeper”, an Iranian comedy about vasectomy.

The decision to grant the permit was made after the producer, the Experimental and Documentary Film Center, cut some scenes from the film as requested by the Culture Ministry.
The film is forbidden to people aged under 16-year-old and audiences must be informed of this in the film’s commercials, Culture Ministry’s Supervision and Evaluation Office (SEO) Director Alireza Sajjadpur told the Persian service of the Fars News Agency.
The film will also have limited screenings in Iranian cities, after it receives permission from provincial officials, he added.
“Fire Keeper” is about Sohrab who has just had his fourth daughter. He has an intense desire to have a son, but his wife cannot have another pregnancy for health reasons, so she persuades him to undergo a vasectomy. However, Sohrab’s late father appears to him in a dream and forbids him to undergo the surgery and, as a result, he is torn between pleasing his wife and his father.
Directed by Mohsen Amiryusefi, the film was screened for journalists, critics, officials and cineastes during the 28th Fajr International Film Festival in Tehran in January 2010.