The plan was to harmlessly promote a new Iranian film, "Damascus Time"
The plan was to harmlessly promote "Damascus Time," a new film about an Iranian father and son who travel to Syria to deliver humanitarian supplies and then get kidnapped by the Islamic State. Actors dressed as Islamic State fighters would show up at a large shopping mall and cinema in Tehran on Monday night and jovially pose for photos with passersby.
Then the actors decided to take the publicity stunt to the next level. Wielding fake guns and swords, they stormed the mall, shouted "Allahu akbar" and pretended to wage an attack. One even rode through the building on a horse.
Unsurprisingly, it didn't go over well.
While some shoppers realized it was prank and took selfies with the group, others reportedly screamed and ran for their lives, thinking the mall was really under attack. Last June, after all, the Islamic State took credit for simultaneous attacks in Tehran on the Parliament building and the mausoleum of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini that killed 12 people and injured more than 40 others.
The spoof was supposed to garner popular interest for "Damascus Time," but it resulted in so much backlash on Iranian social media that director Ebrahim Hatamikia had to apologize.
"I was under impression that someone is going to be in red beard standing outside [the mall] so that people can take pictures," he said. "I didn't imagine there would be a horse, crowd, and shouting inside the complex, I wasn't aware."
Hatamikia is one of Iran's most well-known film directors and is well-liked by the government. Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps partially funded the production company that worked on "Damascus Time"; after seeing the film in February, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif teared up and called it an "unparalleled masterpiece."
Outside Iran, the film hasn't gotten the same reception. A review in the French newspaper Le Monde in April said the film comes off somewhat as propaganda for the benefit of the Iranian government.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)Click for more
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