Tehran 2121, Iranian animated SF movie

Tehran 2121 is an animated SF film from Iran, Directed by Bahram Azimi, who is otherwise “mostly known for the animated driving commercials he has made for the Iranian police.”  The film is “about the past and present of a 160-year-old man. The story of this animation takes place in the year 2121, when robots live alongside people who live for over 160 years due to progress in medical science.”

The Tehran Times has a fuller report – but we have the trailer!

Science fiction and fantasy in Iran

Fantasy Academy is an Iranian science fiction and fantasy club devoted to promoting SF/F. They have their own short story contest and related award, and maintain a web site in both Persian and English. They also translate Persian short fiction into English.

The team includes:

• Amir Sepahram      Administrator, Editor in chief, Translator
• Behzad Ghadimi     Translator, Editor
• Somayeh Karami    Translator, Editor
• Alireza Ghesmati    Translator, Editor
• Mehdi Samadi        Graphic Designer, Painter

About Fantasy Academy:

Who we are:

Fantasy Academy (www.fantasy.ir) is the most popular Iranian website in its field of activity. It is one of a kind place where thousands gather digitally and form the biggest Persian virtual community of Science-fiction and Fantasy fans. The contents published on Fantasy Academy cover complete a spectrum of these genres, from literature to cinema to comics, from critiques to scientific discussions.

Fantasy Academy is a non-governmental, non-commercial, non-political, independent body and is not related to any organization, party or group.Fantasy Academy is a privately governed community, with no dependence to any governmental body, whatsoever. All activities in Fantasy Academyare non-for-profit.

What we do:

At Fantasy Academy we:

• Search, find, read and discuss, then translate the best short stories, novels, articles and comics of sci-fi and fantasy world into Persian (Farsi) language
• Cast hot news of this genre from all around the world
• Digitally publish Iranian fantasy and sci-fi writer’s artwork on the website
• Hold a country-wide annual story-writing contest in the genres and introducing award-winners to the community

Short Story Highlight: “The Gallows-Horse” by Reza Negarestani

The excellent Weird Fiction Review has posted The Gallows-Horse, a short story by Iranian author Reza Negarestani, from the anthology The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities:

Museum: Museum of Intangible Arts and Objects, Saragossa, Spain

Exhibitions: The Secret History of Objects; The Center for Catoptrics and Optical Illusions; Hall of the Man-Object

Creators and Causes: Objects themselves; Deviant phenomenal models of reality; Neurolinguistic and cognitive distortions

Dates of manifestation: May 4, 1808 – 1820(?); July 1936-January 1961; January 2003

Title: The gallows-horse

Objectal mediums: Gaspar Bermudez (Spanish, 1759 – 1820), Thackery T. Lambshead (British, 1900 – 2003)

Also known as the Edifice of the Weird, the gallows-horse is the highlight of the Museum of Intangible Arts and Objects. Simultaneously being displayed in three distinct and permanent exhibitions, the gallows-horse presents the four basic criteria of the museum — Immateriality, Intangibility, Elusiveness and Ephemeral manifestations. Gallows-horse was first brought to the attention of the museum’s board of experts and trustees by an international collective of researchers consisting of art and science historians, linguists and philosophers who were commissioned by the Universities of Oxford and Exeter to index and organize the notes and memoirs of the late Dr. Thackery T. Lambshead, a prominent British medical scientist, explorer and collector of esoteric arts and exotic objects. These notes, according to the research collective, include references to various objects and artworks collected by Dr. Lambshead during his lifetime. Whilst the majority of these references have been traced to tangible corporeal objects currently on display in various international museums, there were also scattered allusions to objects which did not have any record in museums or private collections. Either ravaged by a fire which broke out in Dr. Lambshead’s private residential collection or lost during his lifetime, nearly all of these objects — thanks to engineering and technological interventions — are now visually reconstructed through digital simulation. - continue reading.