The Keeper: The Legend of Omar Khayyam (2005)

Director:

Kayvan Mashayekh

Writers:

Belle Avery (writer)
Kayvan Mashayekh (writer)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama | Family

Tagline:

Love, Destiny, Faith.....eternal truths from a genius with the soul of a poet

Plot:

Kamran is a 12 year old boy in the present day who discovers that his ancestor is the 11th Century Mathematician...

Cast

Vanessa Redgrave	...	The Heiress
Moritz Bleibtreu	...	Malikshah
Rade Serbedzija	...	Imam Muaffak
Bruno Lastra	...	Omar Khayyam
Christopher Simpson	...	Hassan Sabbah
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Kevin Anding	...	Timmy
Diane Baker	...	Miss Taylor
Puya Behinaein	...	Nader
Daniel Black	...	Young Omar
Richard Dillard	...	Mr. Saxon
Adam Echahly	...	Kamran
Marie Espinosa	...	Darya
Raushan Gaiziev	...	Deneb
Carlena Gower	...	Laura
Sarah Hadaway	...	Omar's Mother
C. Thomas Howell	...	Coach Fielding
Dariush Iran Nezhad	...	Grandfather (as Darius Irannejat)
Hanane Joumal-Echahly	...	Shahin
Andy Madadian	...	Ali Ben-Sabbah
Layla Lauren Mashayekh	...	Nessa
Yasmin Paige	...	Young Darya
Shani Rigsbee	...	Court Entertainer
Shahurad Vossughi	...	Mansour (as Shahrad Vossoughi)
Apik Youssefian	...	Grandmother

Also Known As:

Omar (USA) (working title)
The Keeper (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated PG for violence and a scene of sensuality.

Runtime:

USA:95 min

Country:

USA

Language:

Persian | English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Certification:

UK:PG | USA:PG

Filming Locations:

Bukhara, Uzbekistan

Company:

Guide Company Films Inc.

Trivia:

The project was halted and started twice due to lack of funding.

Goofs:

Errors in geography: The Alalamut (Aluh Amut) Castle, center of operation of Hassan-e-Sabah is actually 670 miles (1048 Kilometers) away from Nishapur (Nishabur) the capital of Malik Shah.

Soundtrack:

From Here To Beyond

Pleasantly Disappointed

Good film, but left me feeling unsatiated. One main criticism: NOT A SINGLE VERSE OF KHAYYAM'S POETRY READ OUT IN THE NATIVE PERSIAN LANGUAGE!!! It would not have cost a single penny and would have given so much more weight to the character of Khayyam. Other more minor criticisms: the dialogue was very elementary and the depth of the characters wasn't allowed to be fully developed (perhaps constrained due to 90 min. length of the film)... I didn't feel the depth of the characters, particularly, Khayyam's character. This man was a genius, but came across as a very simple man, at times babbling words in English (again, Fitzgerald's version of the more authentic and melodious Persian original) that wouldn't make much sense to the average viewer. The reason no Persian verse was spoken in this movie may have been because Khayyam was played by a non-Persian, Bruno (though he may be multilingual and talented), who probably hasn't ever read Khayyam in its original form (conjecture on my part). Why subtitle the characters living in U.S. (the Iranian-Americans) and not subtitle Khayyam who never spoke a word of English in his life?? I felt this really detracted from the character of Khayyam and his story. The best actor in the film, really, was Redgrave. I don't think the others carried the weight of those they were trying to emulate, particularly, Khayyam and Malek Shah. Overall, though, the movie is not bad. I think for this being his first film, Mashayekh deserves a good acknowledgment! He is obviously quite talented and I hope to see more films from him. In this film, though, in trying to cover too much and such an important subject (the Legend of Omar Khayyam), and trying to anglicize the project too much for a western audience (perhaps due to financial restrictions), that, in the end, Mashayekh perhaps lost what he was trying to "Keep" in the first place.