Iranian Director Makes History With U.S. Film

MASOUD JAFARI JOZANI is set to make history next month (Sep09) when he becomes the first Iranian director to lead a film crew to America.

It'll be the first time an Iranian film has been allowed to shoot in Los Angeles since the Islamic Revolution 30 years ago (79).

Jozani's In The Wind's Eye follows three generations of Iranians from 1920 to 1981, and, with an overall budget of $12 million (£8 million), the project will be the most expensive production in Iranian film industry history.

He says, "Thanks to President Obama's more open stance towards Iran, we were able to secure 12 work visas for our cast and crew. This would have been unheard of a year ago."

Jozani, a leading light in Iran's movie business, hopes to follow up In The Wind's Eye with another U.S.-based film project - about a Princeton graduate, who travels to Iran in 1905 to teach and becomes caught up in the Iranian Constitutional Revolution.

A third of the film, called Baskerville, will be shot in the U.S.

The director has been trying to make that movie since 2000, but could never get permission to shoot in America.