Soraya

If I were to make a movie about a foreign land, culture, history, etc. I would do a bit of investigation first. The least I would do is to check my story with a native. Not one of the actors or actresses is from Iran or Iranian decent. And there are many of them available these days. The movie seems to be made out of the book by Soraya herself which does not necessarily match the historical events. For example, in Iran they did not have Emperors, they had Kings. King's palace called SADABAD is in north of Tehran and nowhere near the sea. This is a movie made for the taste of western audience and bent in a few places to make it more attractive to them. As a result, it has lost its exotic and factual touch.

I am an Iranian. I was not born before the revolution but I guess I know about the history of my country enough. I want to start with the good points of the movie: 1. Decoration , dresses , make up was excellent. 2. Italians look like Iranians, this made things easy, especially the king character was so similar. Finding someone as beautiful as Soraya I guess is a hard task, in my eyes she was and still is the most beautiful woman God ever created. They could at least cut her hair like her or I guess even her mother was more similar to Soraya than her. 3. I appreciate the fact that they showed interference of English and US American governments in Iran and the way they exploited us and their influence in the palace.

Now the negative points

1. I wish the writer were more aware of the history, Mosadagh was not related to communist, he was one of the few great leaders we had. I wish they investigated more the history of Iran.

2. I have no idea why they replaced "Ashraf" the sister of King with Shamira. Were they afraid of her? Were they threatened? So bizarre.

3. If I were them I would asked a Mola how to tie a hat, what was that on top of their head?

4. The Italians had no role in that time unless I am not aware unless they made up a story to make the movie interesting for Italians.

5. Some scenes were so cheesy

But in Gerneral, as an Iranian, I really appreciate the production of this movie. They really paid attention to some aspects.

In the film when the Shah signs a document in Persian, he does it from left to right, but Persian language is written from right to left! So a guf !

I do not know why the director or the screenplay writer has replaced Princess Ashraf (the real sister of Mohammad Reza Shah) by a fabricated character named Princess Samira which has been cited in the film as the cousin of Shah.

Another thing, the cloth of servants at Sadabad Palace is Turkish, not Persian.

Anyway an entertaining film! :)

Please notify the clueless idiot to learn the name of the country IRAN is pronounced E-Run Not EYE-RAN !

Makes the viewer lose respect for the film's authenticity!

Please notify the clueless idiot to learn the name of the country IRAN is pronounced E-Run Not EYE-RAN !

Makes the viewer lose respect for the film's authenticity!

Please notify the clueless idiot to learn the name of the country IRAN is pronounced E-Run Not EYE-RAN !

Makes the viewer lose respect for the film's authenticity!

Please notify the clueless idiot to learn the name of the country IRAN is pronounced E-Run Not EYE-RAN !

Makes the viewer lose respect for the film's authenticity!

It showed that the Shah tried to pull his country into the modern world ... why he had to become more autocratic when his enemies became stronger ... something we have seen play out again and again. The Iran of today is is a prison of its people ... not too many places left of this sort anymore either. A matter of time before that country will see another overthrow ... god bless! So yes - the movie shows a thin slice of Persia's long history and is reasonably well made.