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theedge.bostonherald.com - : Writer-director Kayvan Mashayekh’s ”The Keeper: The Legend of Omar Khayyam” costumes extravagant desert battles on a penny-pincher’s budget and hides inexperience on the wings of a dream. more...
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www.geocities.com - : The Keeper: The Legend of Omar Khayyam (directed by Kayvan Mashayekh) is a fascinating biopic of Omar Khayyam (1048-1122), famous Persian astronomer, mathematician, poet, and author of The Rubaiyat. The biography is recounted in the method of oral storytelling, reminiscent of the television film Arabian Nights (2000), which was based on the tenth century classic, The Book of the Thousand and One Nights. Titles at the beginning of the film indicate that each family in Persia traditionally appoints one person to be the keeper of the storytelling legends. In a certain Iranian family in Houston, the keeper is Nader (played by Puya Behinaein), but he is dying of leukemia. On his deathbed, he begins to tell his younger brother, twelve-year-old Kamran (played by Adam Echahly), the oral history of Omar Khayyam's life; in advance of his imminent death, Kamran is appointed the family's new keeper. However, Nader dies before finishing the story. From his... more...
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www.eonline.com - : Iranian-American audiences are traditionally left out of English-language cinema, unless they're being depicted as terrorists. So, any positive, family oriented film should be welcome. And on that level, The Keeper is fine. This is the story of 12-year-old boy (Adam Echahly) who learns, through flashback stories told by his older leukemia-afflicted brother that his ancestor was the 11th-century mathematician, astronomer and poet of Persia, Omar Khayyam. It's meant to be a family saga, but as the film shifts from modern day to brocaded past, the balancing act it attempts turns awkward and ham-fisted. The result is an admirable attempt that fails under the weight of its own ambition. Even the presence of Vanessa Redgrave and Run Lola Run heartthrob Moritz Bleibtreu can't save the utterly pedestrian storytelling. For its target audience, however, The Keeper is like a breath of fresh air in a movie landscape polluted with prejudice. more...
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