TEHRAN – Javad Afshar, the director of the controversial series “Gando”, has announced his plan to make a series on the life story of Hazrat Masumeh (SA), sister of Imam Reza (AS), the eighth Shia Imam.

“After years of research, writer Hamid Rasulpur and I have been working on the screenplay over the past year,” Afshar said in the press release published on Monday on the eve of the birthday of Hazrat Masumeh (SA). 

“Due to the breadth of the story and a large number of characters, we decided to make the project in the form of a TV series, however, we also plan to make a feature to be screened at theaters,” he added.

“The screenplay for the feature edition has been completed and we are currently working on the script for the series version.

Afshar said that there have been no negotiations as yet to select members of the cast, and gave no details about the depiction of Hazrat Masumeh (SA) in the project. 

Based on Islamic rules, the depiction of Prophet Muhammad (S), Imams, and the members of their households in film productions and other art forms are forbidden.

The project will be produced in collaboration with the custodians of the holy shrine of Hazrat Masumeh (SA) in Qom.

The producer of the project is Mojtaba Amini, who worked with Afshar in the series “Gando” on the true story of the major espionage case of Jason Rezaian, an Iranian-American journalist who served as Tehran bureau chief for the Washington Post.  

The series faced some criticism from Iran’s Foreign Ministry, which has been portrayed as an uninformed, neutral, and westernophile organization in the series.

Photo: Holy shrine of Hazrat Masumeh (SA), Qom.  
 
MMS/YAW