Prophet Joseph (TV series)

Prophet Joseph (Persian: یوسف پيامبر‎) is a 2008 Iranian TV series directed by Farajollah Salahshoor, which tells the story of Prophet Joseph from the Quran and Islamic traditions.[1] It is also set in the historical context of the Amarna period of ancient Egypt.

Prophet Joseph (hazrat yusuf A.S)
GenreReligious
Historic
Created byFarajollah Salahshoor all on location in iran,tehran
Jamal Shoorjeh
Written byFarajollah Salahshoor
Story byQuran
Directed byFarajollah Salahshoor
StarringMostafa Zamani
Mahmoud Pak Niat
Katayoun Riahi
Jafar Dehghan
Elham Hamidi
Rahim Noroozi
Leila Boloukat
Theme music composerPeyman Yazdanian
Country of originIran
Original language(s)Persian
No. of episodes45
Production
Producer(s)Rasool Ahadi
Editor(s)Hossein Zandbaf
Running timeFridays at 22:00
Production company(s)SimaFilmIdeh.ir
DistributorSerene Films
Release
Original networkIRIB TV1
Original release27 December 2008 (2008-12-27)
External links
Website

Series description

Prophet Joseph is a Persian-language mini-series originally broadcast in 2008, which tells the story of prophet Yusuf (or Joseph) according to the Islamic tradition. Realistic depictions of everyday life are represented. Each episode in the series begins with a poly-phonic recitation of the first four verses (ayah) of the chapter (surah) on Yusuf.

The 45 episodes of the series are replete with themes on filial love, personal journey through life (within family and on one's own), personal character, submission, prayer, prophethood, idolatry, monotheism, loyalty, betrayal, carnal desires, nature of various kinds of love, separation, abandonment, slavery, social organizations at various levels, nature of political authority, governance, strategy, various ideologies (and their implications), anticipation, and finally, forgiveness and salvation.

The movie meanders through the existential lives of three principal characters (Yusuf, Zuleikha and Ya'qub) with dozens of other major and minor characters.

The story in the series starts in the south of Babylon, in the second millennium BC, depicting Ya'qub's battle against idolatry (of Ishtar) in Mesopotamia and the miraculous birth of Yusuf.

Production

The 16-DVD distribution from Soroush.tv contains a bonus, last DVD describing the making of the movie, including interviews with many of the production crew and a number of assistants to the director.

In this DVD and subsequent interviews,[2] the director, Farajollah Salahshoor, gives his production account, as follows:

  • The preparation of the script took between three and four years.
  • The first conceptual draft of about 27 pages ended up in a final scene plan and script draft running about 5000 pages long.
  • Besides the sources available in Persian, hundreds of pages were translated from Arabic and English.
  • The movie set was spread over three mock cities built in space of about 35,000 square meters.
  • In these sources, Salahshour emphasized that without such a concerted effort on completing the script, making the movie within the budget would have been impossible. The writing crew included the director, a head of research with multiple assistants and an artistic adviser. Upon completion, the script was also reviewed by a 5-person committee composed of experts in the arts as well as production crew to ensure quality.
  • About 3000 actors were tested and 200 were selected. The selection involved team work.
  • Every team included consultants and leads. Consultants played a constructive role.
  • The movie was made with more than 1000 clothing elements and 10 trucks of accessories.

Salahshoor describes his reasons for making the movie in an interview with a Shia TV station, with a concurrent translation into English.[3]

Distribution

The series, dubbed in English, can be viewed on Iran's iFilm movie network.

The original series, in Persian, can also be obtained in a 16-DVD, two-box set from its official distributor, Soroush Multimedia Company of Iran, Soroush.tv. First 15 DVDs contain 3 episodes each. Last DVD contains 3 episodes on the making of the series.

Available Languages

The movie was filmed in Persian. The Persian is of the classical "Dastoori" kind (as opposed to the shortened and inflected vernacular). Dastoori Persian has been used in Persian poetry and prose since around the 10th century.

It has been dubbed into Arabic in Al-Kawthar TV and there is also another version with English subtitles, which has been and is currently being broadcast on IRIB.

An Azerbaijani dubbed version licensed by CineSalam Production aired on Space TV.

In 2011, Televizija Sarajevo added subtitles in Bosnian. It is currently aired on TVSA, as well as NTVIC Kakanj (mostly during the holy month of Ramadan on a yearly basis).

In Pakistan, there is an Urdu dubbing available. Its Hindi-Urdu dubbed version named "Prophet Yousuf" was telecast in India on Channel WIN, starting from 19 June 2015.

A Bengali dubbed version has also been telecast in SA TV of Bangladesh from 27 November 2016.

A Turkish dubbed version was aired on Kanal 7.

A reasonably dubbed version in English can also be found on YouTube.[4]

Reception

Given that the series is quite long and the original language is in Persian, authoritative reviews in English have been scant.

The number of views of various dubbed versions indicate some popularity among viewers.

The trailer to the version of the series dubbed in English[5] has been seen more than 350 thousand times on YouTube as of the second quarter of 2017.

The first of the series, dubbed in English, and available on YouTube shows 300 thousand views as of the second quarter of 2017. The last (45th) episode in the same version (dubbed in English) shows about 125 thousand views as of the second quarter of 2017.

Controversies

Some scholars in Egypt's Al Azhar theological school have been reported by a Saudi-owned television station to have advocated the banning of Yusuf in Egypt.[6]

The director's daughter who grew up in a religious family criticized her father's work publicly, she believes that promotion of polygamy is planned by IRIB in Islamic Republic of Iran. (Iran TV.)[7] She said, "… we are not monitoring anyone and everyone has his personal interpretation." She added, "I, as a normal audience, without considering my relation with the director, am very worried about the youths of this country and how the religion is defined for them, worried about the future of this generation, religion, morality and the Quran. What should youths choose?"

Salhashoor commented, "Polygamy had existed in past religions and theological schools. If for some reasons it has been changed is due to the modern world. The prophets and the Prophet's predecessors had second and third wives. It had been in the past and in many Islamic countries, there is still this culture though some Shiites want to revise it. There was polygamy in the past, I could not ignore the fact to please the feminists, again I emphasize that we do not promote polygamy. It is not our intention we just express a historical document."[8]

Aftermath

Katayoun Riahi an Iranian actress who played Potiphar's wife has resigned from acting after playing in this TV series. Since moral values, serenity, respect, modesty and hijab were brought up in this film she could no longer endure any scene. She added: "I do not want to play anymore and I want to keep the sweetness of what i experienced inside me forever."[9]

Cast
gollark: He is never wrong!
gollark: Hail the God-Emperor TJ09!
gollark: 🌵thinkso🌵
gollark: Or he's too busy subtly adjusting the colours of buttons.
gollark: It's probably embedded in thousands of lines of cryptic PHP spaghetti.

See also
  • List of Islamic films
  • Islamic view of Joseph

References
  1. Hamid, Naqib (30 January 2013). "ANALYSIS: Sanctity and sensitivity". Daily Times. Retrieved 22 February 2013.
  2. "The Making of Prophet Yusuf a.s The Movie - Interview with Director of Movie - English".
  3. "The Making of Prophet Yusuf a.s The Movie - Interview with Director of Movie - English".
  4. Trailer to Prophet Joseph
  5. Trailer to Prophet Joseph
  6. "Azhar wants ban on Iranian Prophet Joseph show".
  7. Salahshur's daughter: "Polygamy promotion is planned in TV." Association of Iranian Women magazine. Revised on May 15, 2009.
  8. "Network of Iran - the Prophet Joseph is not made to advertise Ahmadinejad." Institute of press. Revised on May 15, 2009.
  9. "Why I'm not acting anymore". Tebyan.
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