Leyli o Majnun (1936 film)

Infobox Film
name = Leyli o Majnun


image_size =
caption =
director = Abdolhossein Sepenta
producer =
writer = Abdolhossein Sepenta
narrator =
starring = Haji Abed
Manoshehr Arian
Abed Basravi
music = Ali-Naqi Vaziri
cinematography = Probat Das
editing =
distributor = East India Films
released = 22 March 1937
runtime = 145 min.
country = flagicon|Iran Iran
language = Persian
budget =
gross =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website =
amg_id =
imdb_id = 0333788

"Leyli o Majnun" or "Leyli va Majnun" (aka "Leili-o-Majnun" or "Laili-o-Majnoon") is a 1936 Iranian film produced in 1936 by Abdolhossein Sepanta by the East India Film Studio.

It was based on a full-scale dramatic poem by Nizami and was Sepanta's fifth produced film that had sound. The complete script for Laila and Majnun is available as are Sepanta’s other manuscripts. The script contain detailed information regarding exterior and interior scenes, dialogues, and actors’ movements, settings, costumes, lighting, sound effects and camera movments. The explanatory notes on editing and film processing are offered and scene descriptions are mostly accompanied by carefully worked-out drawings. This film was produced in conjunction with the Iranian diaspora community of Calcutta, which included notables Abed Basravi of the Basravi Masjid, which was a cultural centre for the community at the British Indian capital.

Sepanta says about the failure of this final film:"“In September 1936, I arrived in Bushehr with a print of Laila and Majnun. Due to bu-reaucratic complications, the film print could not be immediately released, and we had to leave for Tehran without it. Government officials’ attitude was inexplicably hostile from the beginning and I almost was sorry that I returned home. The authorities did not value cinema as an art form or even as a means of mass communication, and I soon realized that I had to forget about my dream of establishing a film studio. I even had difficulty getting permission to screen my film, and in the end the machinations of the movie theater owners forced us to turn over the film to them almost for nothing.”"

External links

*imdb title|0333788|Leyli va Majnun