Special town being constructed in Shiraz for 'Cyrus the Great'

The scenic Iranian city of Shiraz has been chosen as the shooting location for historical film ‘Cyrus the Great’, a veteran actor says.

Iranian actor Dariush Arjmand said recently that a town will be built in Shiraz, located in Fars Province, to host shooting scenes for the Iranian epic film.

Work on the design of the new town as well as the clothes and accessories to be used in the production has been completed, Arjmand said during a ceremony at Cinema Museum in northern Tehran to officially announce the start the project.

Cyrus (580-529 BC) was king of Persia and founder of the Achaemenid Empire (550-330 BC), the first Persian Empire in western and Central Asia.

The Persian ruler is best remembered for his great tolerance and noble attitude towards the nations he conquered. He is also famous for the declaration of the first Charter of Human Rights known as Cyrus Cylinder.

The historical epic ‘Cyrus the Great’ was written by screenwriter and filmmaker Masoud Jafari-Jozani, who also confirmed that the town in Shiraz will remain in place for use by “other filmmakers who wish to make movies on ancient times.”

In the past years, Hollywood has made two historical films about the ancient Persians: ‘300’ (2006) and ‘300: Rise of an Empire’ (2014). The films are fictionalized retellings of the Battle of Thermopylae, which was fought between an the Greeks, led by King Leonidas of Sparta, and the Persians during the reign of King Xerxes I, the fourth king of the Achaemenid dynasty.

However, the American films were highly criticized for historical errors and the existence of fantastical creatures, all of which depicted Persians as decadent and evil.

In reality, the Achaemenid dynasty is notable for its successful model of a centralized, bureaucratic administration, building infrastructure such as roads and a postal system, the use of an official language across its territories and development of civil services.

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