The Orphanage of Iran (Persian: یتیمخانه ایران), subtitled "A Historical Account of a Genuine Holocaust in Iran", is a 2016 Iranian action drama film directed by Abolqasem Talebi and set during the Invasion of Iran in World War I and the Persian famine of 1917–1919.
Contents
Cast
Alirum Nouraei as Muhammad-Javad Bonakdar
Farrokh Nemati as the Doctor
Bahar Mohammadpour as Muhammad-Javad's wife
Ali Shademan as Hesam
Jafar Dehghan as Abdossattar, a Jewish merchant collaborating with the British
Melika Shaban as A'zam
British personnel
Paul Dewdney as Major General Lionel Dunsterville
John O'Toole as Sir Lionel Rothschild
Tommie Grabiec as Colonel Goldsmith
Cameron Chapman as Major Smith
Bryan Torfeh as Lieutenant John Straw
Toby Hughes as Sir Percy Cox
Screening
In February 2016, the film was screened in the 34th edition of Fajr International Film Festival as one of the few participated in non-competition section. It was released in October 2016. The film was displayed in Buenos Aires in February 2017, in an event co-organized by the Ammar Popular Film Festival and the National Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual Arts.
Miguel Littín the director from Latin America also attended the international Ammar film festival and expressed his opinion about the film:
Although it seems difficult to represent the history, the characters and atmosphere are created in a perfect way and I saw the tone, narration and what we are supposed to see in the history. I got pleasure from the film indeed.
Reception
According to Mehr News Agency, the film is "considered as anti-British work". It had a poor opening, grossing only $10,000 in the first week.