“Al Farouq” director accused of plagiarism

TEHRAN,Aug.5(MNA) -- Iranian writer/director Ahmadreza Garshasbi accused Syrian director Hatem Ali of plagiarism in “Al Farouq”, the TV series on the life story of the second Muslim caliph, Umar ibn al-Khattab. “Al Farouq” is currently being broadcast on the Saudi Arabian satellite channel MBC according to a schedule set for the month of Ramadan this year. Garshasbi said that Ali got the idea of making the TV series from his screenplay “Abu Talib”. Garshasbi said that he had given an 11-page plot, which was in Arabic, to Ali four years ago when he and Iranian producer Mohsen Ali-Akbari visited the Syrian director in his office in Syria. Ali has rejected Garshasbi’s claim, Fars reported quoting the Al Liwaa newspaper from Beirut. “I do not know Garshasbi at all,” Ali said and added that Garshasbi wants to gain publicity by making such a claim. Ali said that the screenplay for “Al Farouq” has been written by Walid Saif. However, Garshasbi said that he has the film of the meeting with Ali and added that he will send it to Ali if he wants. Sunni religious figures and organizations, including the grand mufti of Saudi Arabia and Egypt’s prestigious Al-Azhar University, have raised objections to the broadcast of the TV series, the Lebanese English newspaper The Daily Star reported last week. They have condemned the audio-visual personification of two of its characters, Umar ibn al-Khattab and the first Muslim caliph Abu Bakr.