“Third Day” director to make campaign film for Velayati

TEHRAN,May 19(MNA) -- Mohammad-Hossein Latifi, the director of the acclaimed war drama “The Third Day”, has been assigned to make campaign films for Ali-Akbar Velayati, one of the major candidates in Iran’s forthcoming presidential election. The usual preliminaries have been prepared and Latifi is scheduled to make two 30-minute films for Velayati, the Persian news website Asr-Iran announced on Friday. The films will be aired by the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB). Each candidate is allowed to prepare only two 30-minute films for the TV broadcast. The IRIB has recently begun broadcasting programs promoting people to take part in the presidential election, which will be held on June 14. In addition, Iranian television has started airing “The Culture of Election”, a 15-episode short educational animation series which has been produced by the Saba Animation Studio. The election campaign offices of other candidates are also seeking to hire directors to make their campaign films. Parsine, a Persian news website, announced on Saturday that world-renowned Iranian director Asgar Farhadi was hired to make campaign films for Ayatollah Ali-Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani in the presidential election. However, the report was denied by Farhadi a few hours after publication. Farhadi is currently in France to promote “The Past”, his first movie that was shot outside of his homeland, at the Cannes Film Festival.