The Maritime Silk Road

Mohammad Bozorgnia, who has worked as Dariush Mehrjui’s assistant for many years, has been always interested in making films about sea. The Ship Angelica, Battle of Oil Tankers, Storm, and The Maritime Silk Road are all about personalities who are one way or another connected to the sea. A Place to Love was his sole film which had nothing to do with the sea. It was made four years ago and was a failure. Some of his films are about contemporary society of Iran (Battle of Oil Tankers, Storm) and some go back in time (The Ship Angelica, The Maritime Silk Road). His new film is one of the most spectacular film projects of Iran and is about a man called Soleiman who, according to historical documents, was the first sailor to cross the Indian Ocean to China. His route was then called the maritime Silk Road and many merchants took that route to get their merchandise to China. One of the passengers in this film is a young man who keeps a log of the voyage. Shooting The Maritime Silk Road has started in southern Iranian islands and has continued into China and Thailand. Crewmembers include Bahram Badakhshani (director of photography), Khosrow Keivan-Mehr (sound recordist), Farhad Alizadeh Ahi (production designer), Saeed Malekan (makeup designer), and Hassan Beshkoufeh (producer). Main roles have been played by Ezzatollah Entezami, Reza Kianian, Bahram Radan, Dariush Arjmand, Pegah Ahangarani, Payam Dehkordi, Mehdi Mayamei, and Mohsen Hosseini. It has been shot in seven months and in view of high production cost, it would be possibly among important films of the next edition of Fajr International Film Festival.