Indie Iranian animation studio to offer Prophet Muhammad (S) biopic at Cannes market

TEHRAN,May 14(MNA) -- The Aria Animation Studio, a major private Iranian animation company, plans to offer “Muhammad, the Last Messenger of God”, a 3D animation series on the life story of the Prophet of Islam, at the Cannes Film Market this year. The series has been produced in 26 episodes and the running time of each episode is 22 minutes, producer Dariush Dalvand told the Persian service of MNA on Monday. “The animation has been produced using the most professional techniques in the world,” he said and added that the series is expected to be welcomed by the Arab TV stations, which plan to supply Islamic film productions to their viewers during Ramadan. He said that 1750 cartoon characters have been used to narrate the story in “Muhammad, the Last Messenger of God”, which took four years to be produced. The Aria Animation Studio, a major private Iranian company which is run by Dalvand brothers, Dariush, Kianush, Farzad and Kurosh, also plans to prepare a feature-length version of the animation, which was directed by Kianush. Kurosh Barzegar has written the script based on “The Light of the Eternity” authored by Ayatollah Jafar Sobhani and Hojjatoleslam Mozaffar Salari. The Cannes Film Market will be held from May 15 to 24. Fantastic Films International, a Los Angeles-based company, got the franchise to premiere Aria’s 3-D Persian epic “Battle of the Kings: Rostam & Sohrab” in the world at the film market last year.