Explosion on set of Iranian war drama leaves 5 dead

NY Daily News

A war drama being filmed in Iran turned into cinema verite when a real explosion tore through the set, killing five and seriously injuring two others.

The blast on "Meerajiha" ("The Ascendants") occurred when one of the victims, veteran special effects coordinator Mohammad-Javad Sharifi, was setting up an explosion scene before filming Wednesday, Iran's Tehran Times reported.

The horrific detonation took place 21 miles south of the country's capital city of Tehran in an area known as the Sacred Defense Cinematic Town, which is regularly used for filming.

Blame is being pointed at the regime's ban on safer pyrotechnics necessary for shooting.

"Iranian security officials do not allow the import of special explosive substances for film projects and consequently, Iranian special effects coordinators have to use military explosives for explosion scenes in film projects," Abbas Shoqi of the Special Effects Coordinators' Society in the Iranian House of Cinema, told the ISNA news service.

"We have repeatedly raised objections to the ban on the import of specialized explosive substances for film projects. However, our words have fallen on deaf ears."

"Merajiha," a film about the Iran-Iraq war, is the latest from controversial director Masoud Dehnamaki.

The 44-year-old filmmaker is a former member of Ansar-e Hezbollah, a dreaded extremist Islamic militia known for attacking pro-democracy advocates in the '90s.