TEHRAN – The Revayat Cultural Foundation plans to release its acclaimed 2017 animated movie “Release from Heaven” in Iran in the near future.

The film indirectly depicts part of Mostafa Chamran’s life story during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war. Chamran who is considered as one Iranian war heroes was martyred in the Dehlaviyyeh region on June 21, 1981.

The story of the movie is set in a war-torn country, where a female teacher and comic writer lives with her students in a boarding school. To calm horrified children who have no hope in our terrifying world, she keeps telling them a story every night; stories about her childhood imaginary hero who has become a part of her life. But one night the school is attacked and destroyed so she has to accompany two of her students to find their parents. 

They start a journey during which she finds some signs of her imaginary hero in the real world. Up until that time she thought that the man who had become her hero was just a part of her stories but now with these signs, she knows that he’s real. She is determined to find him but she has a big problem; she knows nothing about him.

“Dr. Chamran was one of the contemporary characters, who dramatically appealed to me,” director Ali Nuri Oskui is a press release on Tuesday.

“There are few real characters like Chamran who have experienced such a complex life with numerous ups and downs. In addition, I was seeking to find someone in contemporary history who has the potential to connect between the mythical and real worlds. Dr. Chamran was the one,” he added.

“This film is also in praise of fiction in the world where sometimes people want to flee from the harshness and complexity of life, taking refuge in their mind, i.e. the world of story. Therefore, legends appear to help people continue on the difficult way,” he stated.

“Release from Heaven” has won great acclaim at some of the numerous international festivals that have screened the movie.

The film received the Animation that Matters Award at the 3rd edition of the Animation Day in Cannes in France.   

It also won the award for best animation at the Universal Film Festival in Kansas City.

Photo: “Release from Heaven” by Ali Nuri Oskui.

MMS/YAW