The festival will also screen his feature 'Muhammad: The Messenger of God', which was released in 2015 and is about the childhood of Prophet Muhammad, and is also the biggest budget production in Iranian cinema.

The film met with criticism from Arab countries which called for its ban. Majid Majidi said in an interview that the ban was called for by Saudi authorities and religious scholars who had not watched the film. He had asked religious scholars to see the film and was ready to act on their observations, he said. He had spent seven years working on the film, consulting Sunni and Shia scholars and researching in every Muslim country, obtaining permissions, Majid said.

Interestingly, Majidi who has made such acclaimed films as 'The Colour of Paradise' and 'The Song of Sparrows' had pulled out of a Danish Film Festival once, protesting against the publication in Denmark of cartoons criticizing Prophet Muhammad.

Source: Tehran Times