TEHRAN The Son of Maryam, the first film directed by the renowned Iranian actor Hamid Jebelli surprised the press officials and reporters at Qods Cinema, and the majority of the audience left the cinema with contentment. Rahman, the young village boy who, due to his nice voice, is the prayer caller of a mosque, helps his family financially through selling milk.

In the village where Rahman lives, there is a church near the mosque. There is a friendly relation between Muslims and Christians in the region. Rahman, who has lost his mother, recalls his mother by looking at the picture of Hazrat Maryam (SA). This creates a friendly relation between Rahman and the priest of the church. As the story continues, the priest becomes ill and Rahman gets involved a series of adventures.

Jebelli, through his first film, has proved that he possesses extraordinary competence and ability. Although every body knows him as a comedian, he showed through The Son of Maryam that he is more familiar with cinema than he is expected. One of the features of The Son of Maryam is the simple atmosphere of the film and the kind of relation between the film characters.

In fact, the atmosphere of the film is as simple as the character of Jebelli himself. Jebelli, in The Son of Maryam, doesn't intend to attract the attention of the audience through colorful pictures, the upper-class locations and famous cast. However, the film glues the audience to their seats through simpleness of the village and its people. The pleasing and attractive witty remarks by Jebelli have doubled the attractiveness of the film.

These remarks are in fact the fingerprint of the director himself. Son of Maryam may not be a box office success at the time of screening for the public, but it is an educational film for different age groups. Some patterns and models of life are presented for both adults and children in the film. We look forward to other films by Jebelli.