“Mokhtarnameh” actor to play Iranian war hero in “Che”

TEHRAN,June 12(MNA) -- Fariborz Arabnia signed a contract to play the role of Mostafa Chamran, an Iranian war hero who was martyred on June 21, 1981 during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq War, in a film entitled “Che”. The film will be directed by Ebrahim Hatamikia, who is famous for the films he made on issues around the Iraq-Iran war, which is called the Sacred Defense in Iran. “Che” will depict 48 hours of his life on August 16 and 17, 1979, Persian media outlets announced on Monday. The film will be produced under the auspices of the Farabi Cinematic Foundation, which is affiliated with the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance. “The film will be shot in Tehran and Kermanshah in the near future and shooting will be completed in four months,” producer Mehdi Karimi told . Arabnia had previously played a leading role in Hatamikia’s “Union of the Good” in 1992. This is the second time he has been selected to act in a real-life drama. Arabnia was the talk of the town about a year ago for his portrayal of Mokhtar in “Mokhtarnameh”, an Iranian blockbuster TV series about an uprising organized by Mokhtar Saqafi after the events of Ashura, the 10th of Muharram, to take revenge against the killers of Imam Hussein (AS). “Invitation” (2008) was Hatamikia’s first movie concerning a social theme not connected to the war. Certain groups were disgruntled by his shift. His romantic political drama “In the Color of Purple” (2005) had previously been criticized by the groups. He finally lamented over the criticism about his shift during a press conference for “Invitation”. “I have made 13 films on various periods of the war and I am very sorry to see that I am still considered to be the only master of the genre,” he said. Those who expected war-themed films from Hatamikia were totally disappointed after he made the social drama “A Report of a Celebration” in 2011. However, he has returned with “Che” about one of heroes of the war. Who was Chamran? Born in 1932 in Tehran, Chamran began his activities with Islamic associations at age 15. Granted a scholarship, he went to the United States for a period of 14 years and obtained his master’s degree from the University of Texas. He then went on to get his Ph.D. in electronics and plasma physics with excellent grades from the University of California at Berkeley. He had complete mastery over English and Arabic and also knew French and German. His most important political activities abroad were organizing and training guerrilla and revolutionary forces in Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon and Syria. Chamran participated in guerrilla activities in liberation wars against Israel and the Phalanges. At the time of the victory of the Islamic Revolution, Chamran returned to Iran. Initially, he became commander of the Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps. He was later appointed minister of defense. Chamran participated actively in the Kurdistan wars and commanded the rescue forces of Paveh, Nosud, Marivan, Baneh, and Sardasht. At the time of the Iraqi invasion, he went to Ahvaz, fighting and never left the front. Chamran was killed by shrapnel from a bomb in the Dehlaviyeh region near Ahvaz.