“Where Are the Thousand Legends?” introduced

TEHRAN,May 20(MNA) -- The book “Where Are the Thousand Legends?” by prominent filmmaker and author Bahram Beizaii was introduced during a ceremony at the Iranian Artists Forum on Friday. Published by Roshangaran and Women Studies Publications, the book is presenting proofs and documents that “The Thousand and One Nights” is of Persian origin. The ceremony was arranged by director of the publication Shahla Lahiji attended by the book editor Mohammad Rezaii-Raad and scholar Hamid Amjad. “The Thousand and One Nights” is a collection of Oriental stories of uncertain date and authorship whose tales of Aladdin, Ali Baba, and Sindbad the Sailor have almost become part of Western folklore. The ceremony began with the pictorial message by Beizaii, who is not in Iran for the time being, expressing his happiness over the book publication. He also thanked all those who had collaborated in the project, especially Lahiji for publishing the book. Rezaii-Raad next made a brief speech about the book and said that Beizaii’s major goal was to find the origin of “The Thousand and One Nights”, adding “Beizaii is trying to give theories and proofs but he also says that this is not the end and others can add more to it.” Expert on art Hamid Amjad continued that Beizaii has tried to search, find and fit together the pieces of this lost puzzle of literature. He even proposes documents and proofs in the books and says which ones are discovered by him and which ones are not.” Lahiji also praised Beizaii for giving a positive image of women in his works and said that the heroines in his books carry culture within them, “any time we read a book by Beizaii, we walk tall and proudly say we are Iranian women.” The ceremony was brought to an end handing awards to those involved in the process of the book publication. Considered as one of the most intellectual auteurs in Iranian cinema, Beizaii has written and directed several films including “When We Are All Asleep”, “Killing Mad Dogs”, “Travelers”, “Bashu, the Little Stranger”, “Death of Yazdgerd”, “The Journey” and “The Downpour”.