Rumi Returning Premieres

Rumi Returning Premieres

Does an 800-Year-Old Muslim Mystic Hold the Key to Global Peace?

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., Sept. 11 /PRNewswire/ -- This fall Mevlana Jalalludin Rumi (http://www.rumireturning.com/), known to the West simply as Rumi, is celebrating his 800th birthday. Rumi festivals are planned in hundreds of far-flung cities, including Tokyo, Prague, Rio de Janeiro, New York, London, Amsterdam, and even Prescott, Arizona. UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Social and Cultural Organization) officially celebrates 2007 as The International Year of Rumi (http://www.mevlana800.info/). In a remote city in central Turkey (Konya - http://tinyurl.com/2zg36y) thousands of interfaith pilgrims from around the world will converge for a birthday celebration at the sarcophagus of this 13th century Islamic teacher and Sufi poet.

The reasons The Washington Post could exult on August 30, 2007 that "Rumi is hot" (http://tinyurl.com/24tftv) are beautifully explored in the new documentary film biography by Kell Kearns and Cynthia Lukas (http://www.heavenearth.net/), Rumi Returning. Filmed at the locations of Rumi's life and amidst the grandeur of Turkey's great mosques, Byzantine churches and Greco-Roman ruins, Rumi Returning is more than a visual feast of the music and dance of the mysterious Whirling Dervishes that Rumi inspired. It movingly tells the story of a Muslim child who fled his birthplace in Afghanistan as a refugee of war during what is now called The Golden Age of Sufism to become one of the planet's great voices for universal love and tolerance of all paths to God.

Onscreen commentator Coleman Barks (http://www.colemanbarks.com/), whose translations of Rumi into the idiom of modern poetry made "the sultan of lovers" the best-selling poet in America, describes Rumi as "the only planetary poet we have, probably."

Ambassador Akbar Ahmed (http://www.akbarahmed.org/), described by the BBC as "the foremost expert on contemporary Islam," was interviewed at his Washington, DC, American University office where he serves as Chair of the Islamic Studies Department. Ahmed interlaces the feature length documentary with powerful comparisons between Rumi's time and ours.

"If there's one motto that the post 9-11 world needs to adopt," he challenges the audience, "it should be a line from Rumi in which he says, 'I go to the synagogue, I go to the church, I go to the mosque, and I see the same altar, and I feel the same spirit.'" Rumi, Ahmed concludes, embodies "the universal spirit without which I'm afraid in the 21st century - and I say this with great confidence - we as a world civilization are lost. We do not have a choice. We must re-discover the spirit of the universal mystics."

Noted Rumi scholar Andrew Harvey (http://www.andrewharvey.net/) and Uzeyir Ozyurt, director of the Dervish Brothers Center (http://www.dervishbrothers.com/) in Konya, round out the list of commentators.

Rumi Returning is set for a series of global premieres this Fall, beginning September 23rd in Monterrey, Mexico where thousands of inter- cultural leaders will gather from 75 countries for the Parliament of the World's Religions Conference (http://www.cpwr.org/). Following the screening, Ambassador Ahmed will deliver the evening's keynote address.

Interviews with all involved, stills, and DVDs of Rumi Returning for review are available. Email Cynthia Lukas at CynthiaLukas345@msn.com or telephone 480-585-9725.

This release was issued through eReleases(TM). For more information, visit http://www.ereleases.com/.

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Source: rumireturning.com

CONTACT: Interviews, Cynthia Lukas for Rumi Returning, +1-480-585-9725,
CynthiaLukas345@msn.com

Web site: http://www.rumireturning.com/

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