Pejman Akbarzadeh

Hayedeh: Legendary Persian Diva is a 2009 documentary film about the late Iranian iconic singer Hayedeh, made by the exiled musician and journalist Pejman Akbarzadeh in The Netherlands. The 100-minute documentary was filmed in France, Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the 6th-century Derbent (Darband) fortification complex is considered the largest defensive structure of Sasanian Persia (Iran) in the Caucasus. “Derbent: What Persia Left Behind”, also explores the unique architecture of the massive fortress, and how it has been preserved for some fifteen centuries by Persian, Arab, Turkish and Russian rulers. Built strategically in the narrowest area between the Caucasus Mountains and the Caspian Sea, the fortification includes the northernmost Middle Persian (Pahlavi) inscriptions in the world, which are in danger of destruction. The 42-km defence wall of the complex that extended toward the Black Sea had already been destroyed in the Soviet era.

The evolution of music from Shahrivar 1320 (August 1941) at the same time as the reign of MohammadReza Pahlavi until 22 Bahman 1357 (February 1978) and the banning of music by Ruhollah Khomeini.