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The Holy Wedding
The Holy Wedding captures on film a ritual that is said to be a thousand years old or even more. According to tradition, Pir-e Shalyar was a renowned Zoroastrian priest, who lived in the old Huramane Takht village sometime in the VIII century. Legend has it that the deaf and mute princess of Bukhara was sent to his home by her father, the king. As the girl approached the holy man’s abode she was magically cured. So the thankful king decided to marry his daughter to him. Now, more than a thousand years later, the Pir-e Shalyar wedding festivity is held annually in the Uramantakht village of Iranian Kurdistan. Although it is referred to as a wedding, in essence this ritual is a ceremony during which Kurds pray to God, make a sacrifices, play the daf, Sama dance and prepare a special soup.
Farhad Varahram
Born in 1948 in Borujerd, Iran, Farhad Varahram graduated from the Academy of Film and Television and the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Tehran. He started out in cinema as a cameraman, but soon began directing his own films, resulting in a decades-long fruitful career in documentary filmmaking. His films reveal the colorful ethnic and cultural diversity of Iran. Varahram is also a Film Commissioner in Ethnographic Film lecturer in the University of Tehran, where he’s also an Assistant Professor. Outside of filmmaking, Varahram is a photographer and author of many monographs. Since 1978 he has had numerous photo exhibitions both in Iran and Europe.
Selected Filmography
1974 – Stabilizing Sand
1977 – The Palm
1979 – Bazar in Ardehal
1988 – Taraz
1991 – Slaughtering Camel
1995 – The Holy Wedding
1999 – Memory and Legacy
2006 – City Pass, over water
2007 – The Silence of the Jungle
2008 – The Land of the Sun’s Home
2014 – Blacks of Iran
2014 – From Alps to Damavand