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Documentary Aired Exclusively in Iran by VOA


Son of the film's subject speaks publicly about his mother for the first time

Washington, D.C., March 17, 2009 - Moon Sun Flower Game, a documentary film about world-renowned Iranian poetess Forough Farrokhzad and the son she adopted from a leper colony in 1962, was shown for the first time in Iran by the Voice of America (VOA).

VOA's Persian News Network (PNN) broadcast the 90-minute film on Saturday. It included a PNN interview with Hossein Mansouri, Farrokhzad's son who now lives in Munich, Germany.

"This culturally important film allowed Iranians for the first time to learn the story of Farrokhzad's son, and to connect, once again, with a poetess who was a beloved national figure in her country," said Alex Belida, PNN's acting director.

Farrokhzad, also a filmmaker, adopted Mansouri from a leper colony in Bababaghi, northwestern Iran, after making The House is Black, a movie about the colony. Farrokhzad died in a car accident in 1967.

A poet himself, Mansouri had not spoken publicly about his mother until participating in the documentary by German filmmaker Claus Strigel.

Moon Sun Flower Game generated numerous emails to VOA, including one in which the author wrote: "My friends and I just watched (the film) and enjoyed every second of it. Keep up the good work … My sister cannot stop talking about it and she is making me crazy."

VOA has the largest combined radio and television audience in Iran of all international broadcasters, with one in four adult Iranians tuning into VOA at least once a week. Programs are also streamed at www.VOAPNN.com.

The Voice of America, which first went on the air in 1942, is a multimedia international broadcasting service funded by the U.S. Government through the Broadcasting Board of Governors. VOA broadcasts approximately 1,500 hours of news, information, educational, and cultural programming every week to an estimated worldwide audience of more than 134 million people. Programs are produced in 45 languages.

For more information, call VOA Public Relations at (202) 203-4959, or e-mail askvoa@voanews.com.


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