Majidi’s ‘Muhammad’ to represent Iran at the Oscars

Muhammad, the Messenger of God directed by Majid Majidi has been chosen for the 88th edition of the Oscars.

The epic movie, which chronicles the childhood of Islam’s Prophet (PBUH), is to represent Iran in next year’s Academy Awards for best foreign film section.

The decision was made after a series of extensive talks and discussions by the committee of cinema experts in charge of selecting the country’s official submission to next year’s Academy Awards ceremony.

Being the most expensive film in the history of Iranian cinema with a partly state-funded budget of nearly $40 million, it has attracted crowds to cinemas across the country and garnered nearly $2 million since its release in late August.

Majidi has said the aim of his film is removing the “violent image” of Islam created by Takfiri groups.

A number of internationally-acclaimed cinematic figures, including Academy Award winning visual effects supervisor and filmmaker Scott E. Anderson, three-time Oscar-winning Italian director of photography Vittorio Storaro and renowned Croatian production designer Milijen Kreka Kljakovic, cooperated in making the film; Academy Award-winning Indian music composer Allah-Rakha Rahman has also composed the music for the movie.

It is Majidi’s second nomination at the Oscars. His The Children of Heaven was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film in 1998.

Iran won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film with the A Separation by director Asghar Farhadi in 2012.

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