Plot

In this movie, Khayyam, the hero of free thinking should battle Caligula, the notorious dictator of Albert Camus. How can he pass through this battle? Whether reason and wisdom can win over prejudice?

In this documentary, we witness the life of Umar Khayyam from the time his birth to the present time; how he managed to deal with all problems that he has faced during his life and how he came up with the answers to his questions both philosophical and mathematical. He managed to design the most accurate calendar in the world. At the same time, we see the attempts of a theatrical group in today Iran who try to perform a play about Khayyam but many parties (governmental and other) pose lots of pressures on them and try so hard to stop them since Khayyam especially his philosophy and perspective on religion in not welcomed in today Iran.—Noghteh Group

Who is Khayyam? What does he have for modern people, or better say the people of pre postmodern era? This question was the starting point for me to make a movie about Khayyam. In this movie, Khayyam, the hero of free thinking, should battle with Caligula, the well known dictator of Albert Camus. This movie tries to base its arguments on historical facts and documents and tries to move away from legends and stories as much as possible. But how Khayyam battle with the symbol of dictatorship?

The answer of this questions stems from a very personal trauma. I, as a freelance and independent filmmaker, resides in an ancient land whose history has been told through mostly dictatorship and totalitarian regimes and leaders. Till today, I could not find any way to work formally. I have started this movie in the spring of 2013, in the first years most of my time was spent on finding a financial sponsor to support this project, but eventually I came to this conclusion that this subject is not a matter of importance to no one, especially the officials. They believed that Khayyam was a womanizer poet and was not worthy of any attention.

These obstacles did not stop me from continuing my way through finishing this project. As a documentary filmmaker, I think that this is my mission to pay homage to a great man like Khayyam; so I tried to gather mind liked people to continue the project on our own budget. The more we kicked out of official offices, the more we welcomed by scientist and artists. Finally, after 7 years of endeavor and attempt, my team and I manage to finish this film. So to say, we were dragged into darkness and failure but we fought and rose like a phoenix!