MarVista releases romantic drama inspired by Rumi's love poems

Oct 22, 2015

Max Amini in the wedding scene in Beyond Paradise

From the director of the romantic comedy David & Layla now comes a poignant cross-cultural love story in English that introduces Rumi's poems to the world. Beyond Paradise is a love story based on an Iranian music student, Shahrzad, who flees Iran to escape a tragic past and ends up in Los Angeles. While trapped in an estranged marriage, Shahrzad falls for her piano teacher's poetic young lover, Sebastian (Ryan Guzman: The Boy Next Door, Heroes Reborn, Pretty Little Liars and the popular Step Up dance movie sequels).

A scene from Beyond Paradise – Sebastian (Ryan Guzman) and Shahrzad (Francia Raisa.)

The cast includes several Iranian Americans, such as comedian and actor Max Amini who plays Sean, Sharzad's husband. USA Release is by MarVista Entertainment, an independent studio with a global perspective and an expansive distribution footprint spanning more than 125 global territories and reaching all major VOD, SVOD, and broadband platforms through its digital distribution division. Beyond Paradise is now available on Digital HD and On Demand at: Amazon Instant Video, ITunes, Google Play, TWC - Time Warner Cable, DirecTV, Verizon, Comcast Xfinity [featured in‘Indie Film Club’ collection], VUDU, Cox, AT&T U-Verse, iNDEMAND (nationwide aggregator), Charter, Vimeo On Demand, Vubiquity (nationwide aggregator), Xinfinity Online (Netflix to come soon).

The director, J. Jonroy Alani, in an exclusive interview with Kodoom.com, explains how he also earnestly searched for an Iranian actress to play Shahrzad, the female lead role, but he did not succeed: "As in other recent films with Iranian themes such as Rosewater and Desert Dancer, for logistical, budget and security reasons, eventually non-Iranians had to be cast to play the leading Persian roles". The filmmakers could not get an experienced Iranian actress to commit to playing Shahrzad during the scheduled shooting of the film.

Also starring are Francia Raisa (The Secret Life of The American Teenager), Daphne Zuniga (Spaceballs, Melrose Place, One Tree Hill), Misha Crosby, Yareli Arizmendi (Like Water For Chocolate, A Day Without a Mexican), Rome Shadanloo (A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night), Kira Soltanovich (popular comedian as herself), Mel Fair, Christopher Maleki and Ali Olomi.

Rumi's love poems are vocalized by Rana Mansour (news/events link) accompanied by the renowned composer/pianist Erwin Khachikian. Rimsky Korsakov's Shéhérazade (composed in 1888) and Tchaikovsky's classical music are used in the score of the film. The score also features original Persian music compositions by professor/composer/musician Houman Pourmehdi and Pirayeh Pourmehdi, with vocals by Fereshteh Dehghani.

The film is produced by Gill Holland, a well known producer and supporter of over 100 Indie films, including a Triple Awards Sundance winner.

The writer/director/producer, J. Jonroy Alani, a human rights activist, is a dual American and British citizen, and a member of both DGA and WGA. He was born in the Middle East. To make and finish this low-budget Beyond Paradise, Alani was obliged to assume the roles of 5 additional department heads such as Production Designer, Art Director, Final Music Editor. He is fluent in English and French and speaks and understand Kurdish, Spanish, Portuguese, Persian and Arabic. He has lived and worked in Paris, London, Rio de Janeiro, San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York.

More photos, clips and a list of Rumi's poems used in the film can be found on the Official Movie Site: www.BeyondParadiseMovie.com

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