Persian-Language Premiere of Claude Lanzmann's Shoah

On 7 March, the Persian version of Claude Lanzmann's SHOAH was broadcast into Iran and the Middle East by satellite television stations.

Pursuing its goal of intercultural rapprochement between Jews and Muslims through the promotion of mutual knowledge, the Aladdin Project translated and subtitled the film in Persian, Arabic and Turkish. Its broadcast by several Arabic, Persian and Turkish-language television stations will allow wider audiences to be acquainted with the history of the Holocaust in their own languages. Several premieres are planned in various capitals of the Middle East.

Based on emails and telephone calls from viewers across Iran, the reaction to the film was overwhelmingly positive.  The magnitude of responses has been so high that the television station has decided to devote a special phone-in program to receive live reactions from viewers in Iran and around the world.  Shoah will be broadcast in hour-long episodes daily for the next two weeks, and is also available for free download from the Aladdin Project's Digital Library.

The state-run Iranian news agency Fars denounced the film, stating that it is "propaganda in a bid to counter Iran's efforts in international organizations to refute its claims about the myth of the Holocaust."

To mark the premiere, a launch event was held at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris and attended by over 400 people, including UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova, French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand, Aladdin Project President Anne-Marie Revcolevschi, Claude Lanzmann and many European and Iranian intellectuals, authors, ambassadors, senior government officials, filmmakers, publishers, and journalists.  Minister Mitterrand described Shoah as "a cinematographic and historic masterpiece," and praised the Aladdin Project for its work to bring cultures closer together.

The project was a partnership between the Aladdin Project, UNESCO, the French Ministry of Culture, the National Centre for Cinematography, the Edmond J. Safra Foundation, the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, the French Foundation for the Memory of the Shoah, and the Evens Foundation.