TEHRAN – Iran’s Art Bureau has organized an international online festival of naqqali, a dramatic style of storytelling dedicated to stories from Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh and other epic Persian stories.

Interested applicants including children, young adults, and adults can take part in the festival in two sections of naqqali and the recitation of Shahnameh.

Each individual can submit one video of his/her presentation to the secretariat of the festival before May 14.

The videos must be no less than five minutes and no more than 20 minutes.

The works will be judged by the juries at the Dramatic Art center of the bureau and winners will be announced on May 24.

Shahnameh narrates stories of legendary Iranian kings and heroes.

Also known as the “Book of Kings” in English, the Shahnameh is based mainly on the Khwatay-namak, a history of the kings of Persia in Pahlavi (Middle Persian) from mythical times down to the 7th century.

For nearly 1000 years, Shahnameh has remained one of the most popular works in the Persian-speaking world.

The Shahnameh, in which the Persian national epic found its final and enduring form, was completed in 1010.

The Shahnameh millennium was accepted on UNESCO’s 2010 calendar of events.

Photo: Samereh Maftun performs a naqqali in an undated photo. (Shahnamehpajuhan/Mojdeh Shahriar).

RM/YAW