TEHRAN - Oscar-nominated Iranian filmmaker Majid Majidi will begin shooting his film on the childhood of the Prophet Muhammad (S) this coming June.

The southern Iranian city Asaluyeh and Shahriar, a city near Tehran are among the locations of the film “Muhammad (S)”. Its pre-production began in January of 2010 and worldwide distribution is scheduled for mid-2011.
The film narrates the childhood of Prophet Muhammad (S) up to the age of twelve, well before the advent of his prophecy and targets an international audience of all faiths.
The first draft of the screenplay was co-authored by Majidi and Kambuzia Partovi, the writer of the celebrated film “Border Café”.
Vittorio Storaro, the three-time Academy Award winning Italian director of photography whose credits include “Apocalypse Now”, is taking the helm of filming the great Iranian project “Muhammad (S)”.
Aleksandar Denic, the set decorator of Emir Kusturica’s tragic-farce “Underground” is also due to collaborate in this project. Sound recorder Yadollah Najafi and editor Hassan Hassandust are among the crew as well.
Historical documents were compiled with the aid of scholars, historians and clerics from various countries including Iran, Morocco, Tunisia, Lebanon, Iraq and Algeria over a period of a year.
Produced by Mohammad-Mehdi Heidarian, the film will be shot in Iran and probably in two other countries, and will be released in Persian, Arabic and English at a minimum.
Majidi previously said in an interview that the film is an attempt by Iranian cinema to approach the global standard in this cinematic field and expressed his hopes that the project would yield positive results.
There is just one film on the life of Prophet Muhammad (S) that was produced 40 years ago while there are more than 200 films on Jesus Christ (AS) and over 100 films on the life of Prophet Moses (AS).
Majidi’s “Children of Heaven” earned Iran’s first Oscar nomination in 1999 and his “The Song of Sparrows” was nominated for a Golden Bear award for best film at the Berlin film festival in 2008. Reza Naji won the festival’s Silver Bear for best actor for his role in the film.