Shadmehr Rastin: Read the Book ‘Ancient Iranian Stories’
According to the Cinemadrame News Agency, Shadmehr Rastin, our country’s renowned screenwriter, introducing the book Ancient Iranian Stories by Ehsan Yarshater from Scientific and Cultural Publications, wrote: “Studying pre-Islamic Iranian stories is appealing for screenwriters because it allows them to become familiar with storytelling methods different from those of religious texts.”
Ehsan Yarshater has directly translated these short stories into modern Persian from Avestan, Old Persian, Pahlavi, Sogdian, and Parthian languages. In the book’s preface, he notes that “these stories are an expression of the experiences, thoughts, and aspirations of the very ancient peoples of this age-old land.”
“I suggest comparing the life story of Ardashir Papakan, translated from the book Karnamag, with the main plot of the Game of Thrones series. Also, the core plot of one of the stories—the hiding of Papakan’s army in a fortress and exploiting the unawareness of its inhabitants—might be similar in scheme and conspiracy to Odysseus‘s trick with the Trojan Horse.”
“The main point in these stories is the absence of a classic three-act structure and an emphasis on the conflict between good and evil with parallel plots, which is the primary narrative style in ancient Iranian stories. And of course, characters who adventure, oscillating between good and evil, until (unfortunately) the element of divine glory (farr-e izadi) comes to the character’s aid to bestow upon them a heroic image. Perhaps it is this divine glory in ancient Iranian tales that has caused their narrative to lose its meaningful impact in this era.”
