Digital version of the soundtrack album “The Survivor” by Majid Entezami released

TEHRAN: The soundtrack album “The Survivor”, composed by acclaimed Iranian musician and composer Majid Entezami, was released about 30 years after the film was screened.

The album contains 23 tracks from the Iranian historical drama “The Survivor”, which was written and directed by Seifollah Dad (1955-2009) and released in 1996.

The digital version of the album is now available to enthusiasts on all international music streaming services, IRNA reported.

Loosely based on the novella Return to Haifa by Palestinian author Ghassan Kanafani, The Survivor is an emotional and symbolic drama depicting the transformation of Palestine into Israel, focusing on a couple, Palestinian doctor Saeed and his wife Latifah, living in Haifa in 1948. As Jewish refugees arrive from Europe and Palestinian residents protest, tensions in the city rise. During the ensuing war, Saeed and Latifeh are killed, but their young son Farhan survives. Soon after, a Jewish couple move into Saeed's house and adopt Farhan, whose name has been changed to Moshe. Meanwhile, Saeed's mother Safiyeh finds out what happened and poses as Farhan/Moshe's former nanny, while her husband Rasheed plots her revenge.

The film won the Special Jury Prize at the 14th Fajr Film Festival in Tehran in 1996 and was nominated for Best Screenplay and Best Actress. Salma Al-Masri received a Certificate of Appreciation for her role in the film. The film also won an award for Best Screenplay at the Non-Aligned Movement Film Festival in Pyongyang, North Korea.

Maestro Entezami, 75, also an oboist, has composed music for over 80 films, including “Scent of Joseph's Shirt,” “The Train,” “From Karkheh to Rhine,” “The Glass Agency,” “Duel” and “The Madman Flew Away.” His resume also includes compositions for nine television series and ten suite symphonies. He has won the award for best original music several times at the Fajr International Film Festival.

He studied at the State University of West Berlin in 1968 under the supervision of Karl Steins and Lothar Koch. From 1969 to 1972 he gave successful concerts with the Symphony Orchestra of the University of Berlin in Lyon, Nancy and Marseille, France.

In 1973, Entezami came to Iran at the invitation of the Tehran Symphony Orchestra and gave a successful Mozart concert as an oboe soloist under the direction of Helge Dorsch. He then returned to Germany as a member of the Berlin Symphony Orchestra and the West German Philharmonic.

In 1974 he became a member of the Tehran Symphony Orchestra and taught at the Tehran Conservatory and the Music Department of Tehran University. In 1976 he gave two oboe concertos with Lucette Martirossian on piano and harpsichord and Ivan Pristas on bassoon, and a concert with the orchestra Les Jeunesses Musicales de I'Iran conducted by Ali Rahbari and Valodia Tarkhanian as viola d'amore soloist.

Although he is the son of famous Iranian actor Ezzatollah Entezami, Majid's entry into the film industry was his own.

He has a deep understanding of the image and has always tried to tell the untold essence of the story. He also has experience in different styles, which has given his portfolio a great variety, from comedies to epic war films.

Entezami's music is orchestral and based on Western classical music, but with Iranian instruments and unusual rhythms that give his works an Eastern flair.

Every theme and musical color heard in Entezami's work has a rational explanation in the story. He believes that music tells a part of the story that is not already told in the film. Some of his works seem narrative, almost like part of the script, but he claims no director has ever asked him about such qualities.

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