“Shekarestan” to return in Noruz holiday

TEHRAN –(Iranart)- Masud Safavi, the producer of the popular Iranian animated series “Shekarestan”, has said that a new season of the series will return in the Noruz holiday in March.

“Shekarestan” features stories inspired by ancient Persian proverbs and anecdotes. 

Speaking to the Persian service of ISNA on Sunday, Safavi said that Iran enjoys a good status in the field of animation cinema, however, he added that producers face problems to convince companies to distribute and provide financial support for their productions.  

“For example, if we want to make a superhero for 20 million students, a series of episodes is not enough. This requires a deep channel of financial support. That is, we need to make all the related products and distribute them in all the chain stores,” he said. 

He also pointed to the financial problems of animation productions and said, “The main point is that it is believed that a number of people simply sit at a desk and begin to draw some illustrations to do animations, but they don’t realize that the biggest world studios and the latest academic methods are dedicated to animations. There, a number of people gather for two or three years to make animations,” he explained.

“Animation is quite serious in the world because children are serious in the world and they are the very first priorities,” he concluded. 

Last year, a selection of 15 episodes centering on the coronavirus concern was made and broadcasted on the IRIB channel during the Noruz holiday.

Veteran actor Ahmadi gave his voice to the storyteller in the early seasons of “Shekarestan”. He appeared in over 30 films and also voiced many animation characters over his 65-year career. He was famous for his voice of the sly fox that tricks Pinocchio. Ahmadi died in 2014.

The Palme d’Or winning actor Shahab Hosseini next lent his voice to the storyteller for the series in the subsequent seasons. 

source: Tehran Times