The Kingdom of Solomon

In 2004, when Iranian Parliament approved the budget of the big production movies, Mojtaba Faravardeh suggested Solomon's life story and it was accepted to be the first Iranian big produced movie. There was many arguments why not an Iranian great honor of history to be filmed and there is yet.

After 2 years of researches over history and testaments, the group decided to write the screenplay just based on Holy Quran. The researches were not only about story line but also about set and costumes, and new technologies in nowadays cinema. So the group made many trips to many countries and after all they found Leo Lo as Visual Supervisor and Kinson Tsang as Sound Mixer that both of them were from Hong Kong. Again many argues begun why not European and Western Specialists? Mojtaba Faravardeh who became the Producer of this project at that time answered: "The first problem is western sanctions and second is different believes of us and them about Solomon and third is our Iranian specialist to be trained."

'The Kingdom Of Solomon' filmed from May 2006 to September 2007 in 9 months but with 5 months of standby for lack of budget. The group spent one year for post-production and the film was going to 2009 Fajr Film Festival but it didn't because Christianity New Year holidays and Chinese New Year holidays stopped foreign group to finish visual effects. After that stop, group finished the film and sent it to Chan Kwong-Wing to compose music for 'The kingdom of Solomon'.

The film was ready now to be screened but 2009 presidential election and events after that made group to send the film to 2010 Fajr Film Festival and at there 'The kingdom of Solomon' nominated in 9 parts and caught 5 Crystal Simorgh for best Visual Effects, best Music, best Sound Mix, best Make up, and best supporting actor by Mahdi Faghih who acted as Aara the Magician. But most of Iranian reviewers were not satisfied with the film quality since for the first Iranian big production movie that had five million dollars of budget, the result was acceptable.

These argue brought farther the release date and after all 'The kingdom of Solomon' movie released on 7 October 2010 in Iran and made 2.5 million dollars revenue until today. We should also remember that because of no good film, Iranians loosed their habit of going to cinemas. The film is going to be screened in Middle East countries and some other parts of the world after its screening in Iran finishes.

Shahriar Bahrani- writer and director- made his best in the first Part of Solomon trilogy as he did in 'Saint Mary' (2001) movie before. He promised to do better in making 'The kingdom of Solomon' following parts and I know he will do.

'The Kingdom Of Solomon The Prophet (Part One)' will be out soon and I recommend you to watch it.

a Muslim story. and an universal message. Antisemitic references. and good intentions. visual effects who reminds many Asian films. and an impressive effort of entire artistic team. short, a film who could be defined in many ways. waste of time, artificial, ambitious, childish, great or impressive. but who has the virtue to present a story who lives in the faith of Muslims, Jews and Christians. the high price of piece. the challenge of battle against personal demons. the image of wise leader, strong and humble who represents the ideal of every society. Shahriar Bahrani does a decent work and this is the only important fact. it is important not only for the great effort to make the film but for ambition to give a special story. because Molke Soleiman is a testimony of faith. not a story because it seems be a sketch. but as first part of a series, the hope of viewer remains at optimistic level. not copy of Hollywood blockbuster for the simple detail than the purpose is profound different. not as part of chain of the Iranian cinematography masterpieces because the acting, script, image and dialogues are far by it. for an European, Orthodox Christian, like me, it is a definition of Islam in middle of too many controversies. it is the best manner to send a message about essence of faith. like a spiritual wake up.sure, the source is The Quran but this fact has not a challenge for a Christian public. or, maybe, for the Jew public. because the message is the only significant in the case of this poor film. not coherent, too poetic, not real convincing. but useful. and that is the basic motif to see it.

First - Amin does a brilliant acting job at Sulaiman, not only as a strong and powerful king when he needs to be, but as a grounded and humble prophet too! Also - The film crew did a brilliant job of showing how the son of the Prophet Dawud would rule, it gives you a glimpse of Sulaiman would have actually ruled in his time. Education- The film does a brilliant job in giving us an insight into what Sulaiman did and how as it is quite hard to research into this particular character compared to others such as Jesus (PBUH) or Muhammad (PBUH). Film - The film does a brilliant job in entertainment, it has neither too much or too little action and neither too much or too little dragging bits. (and no cheesy scenes! :) ) I HIGHLY recommend you watch this and the 2 following films that, INSHALLAH!, will come out.

Yes the Visual effects -which the Chinese did by the way -were not great,the pace of movie is not acceptable and it has many flaws and is far from great by cinematography measures But...and yes it is a very big But,It tells the TRUTH which seems to be omitted in the Great movies (Then again by cinematography measures)of today,the time when God is never mentioned (if not in blasphemy)& his prophets are made known as merely KINGS & SEERS. Some of us just think of demons as subjects of tales & myths & aren't even aware of their huge role now and even more in the future as our enemies,the sworn enemies of humans. Watch this movie to know who Solomon the prophet was & What role did he have, and will have in the world of Today and in the future.

The Kingdom of Solomon is simulation and imitation of some Hollywood movies . You can't see anything interesting in this movie , and it's like a reminder of some movies and TV series . If you watche this movie you can see the old zombies of 80's and you can see the Lost TV series smoke thing or you can see the 80's spaceships in the case of a ship with an average visual effect for all effects .

The other issue is this that the story is not completely defined , the characters are not completely introduced to viewer ;for example even you will recognize the Solomon's wife when she is going to die ... and so on .

The viewers in cinema laughed to drama and visual effects that was in this movie , the film is full of horse riding that makes the viewer tired , and , and , and , and ...

So at last I recommend to you to not to watch this movie . It's wasting time , It has nothing , Not story , not any interesting visual effects and in fact it's a repetitive movie with a lower level that you ever seen before . The 5 million dollars wasted for nothing .

Thank you. Best Regards.