Aroos (The Bride, 1990) and Shokaran (Hemlock, 2000). When the Institute for the Compilation and Publication of the Works of Imam Khomeni decided to make a film about Khomeini’s life as the leader of the Iranian Revolution, Afkhami was chosen to be the director. Afkhami decided to show Khomeini’s life during his childhood and the 1960s instead of his life as the Supreme Leader of Iran, and there were no issues with his proposed budget or storyline. However, issues arose which the films producer, Mohammad-Reza Sharafodin, the Secretary of the Society of Revolutionary Cinema and the Sacred Defense, who is close to the ruling conservatives, decided he wanted to overdub the film using Dolby techniques in a studio outside of Iran. Whilst Afkhami was in Canada working on his most recent film This is Not My House (2011) Sharafodin began to recut the film without his approval. Cultural Censorship in Iran
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For the past three years the organisers of the Fajr Festival have promised that Farzand-e Sobh will be included in the programme, but it finally premiered during the 29th Fajr Film Festival (February 5-15, 2011). Before the premier arguments between the Afkhami and the producer escalated, beginning with a letter of complaint from Afkhami. When the news of the film’s scheduled premiere was released Afkhami wrote a letter to Masoud Shahi, the secretary of the Fajr Film Festival, requesting that the film be removed from the festival’s programme. His request was denied, and the film premiered to mixed reviews. Afkhami told the media, “I have not seen the movie, and I do not consider myself to be the director. The producers have basically stolen my name.”41 According to a blog post by “Pedestrian,” journalists and representatives of the media who attended the premier clapped and made noise throughout the screening to 41. Tabnak, "Afkhami›s Letter about the Screening of Farzand-e Sobh ," Tabnak News Site, January 28, 2011, http://goo.gl/hEoIo.