TEHRAN – The Russian cities of Moscow and St. Petersburg will be hosting an Iranian Cultural Week, which will start on July 4.

Iran’s Islamic Culture and Relations Organization (ICRO) will organize the event with contributions from the Embassy of Iran in Moscow.

Several art exhibitions and workshops, Iranian film screenings, musical concerts and computer games competitions will be held during the festival, the ICRO announced on Saturday.

Iran’s Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance, his assistants and a member of the Iranian Parliament will attend the cultural week.

As part of the festival, Iran’s National Orchestra will join the Russian National Youth Symphony Orchestra to perform two joint concerts in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Iran and Russia have signed several memorandums of understanding over the past year to enhance cultural relations.

One of the latest examples, was an MOU inked between Iran’s Farabi Cinema Foundation (FCF) and Russia’s Red Square GC last week.

Red Square GC is actively engaged in various media businesses including TV, filmmaking, TV series, Internet, copyright distribution, advertising and showbiz. 

Red Square’s TV projects are well-known to and favored by the viewers. They include entertainment, music and comedy shows, as well as auteur projects and talk shows on the First Channel, STS, TV Center and Perets TV channel.

Based on the MOU, Red Square GC will help to promote films produced at the Farabi Cinema Foundation.

The foundation previously signed a memorandum of understanding with the Russian Cinematographers’ Union to cooperate on joint film projects.

The MOU will ease the way for organizing film weeks and festivals and conducting joint research projects.

In a meeting with FCF director Mehdi Javadi, the union’s president, Nikita Mikhalkov, called the Oscars a race that is handled by the White House and CIA and suggested the launching of a joint film prize by Russia, Iran, China, India and countries in Latin America and Eurasia.

Photo: A poster for an Iranian Cultural Week, which will take place in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

MMS/YAW