Soraya2003

Director
Lodovico Gasparini

Actors

Anna Valle (Soraya Esfandiari Bakhtiari)
Erol Sander (Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi)
Mathilda May (Chams)
Stoyan Aleksiev (Représentant anglais)
Anton Alexander (Kim Roosevelt)
Sergio Ammirata (Iranian Ambassador)

She was a normal young girl destinated to become the Empress of Persia…but how long could her fairy tale last?
Soraya is the daughter of a woman from Berlin and a Persian prince whose family had fallen on hard times. She first spent a happy childhood in Persia before her mother decided to return to Europe so that Soraya could be reacquainted with her western heritage. By sheer chance a photo of Soraya falls into the hands of the wealthiest man on the planet, the Shah of Persia, who is completely captivated by the young beauty. He enlists the aid of his sisters, who through the Persian embassy invites the baffled Soraya to Rome. There, the Shah’s sister reveals her true mission…that her brother desperately wants Soraya for his wife. Soraya, thrilled yet naturally full of disbelief, accepts the invitation to travel to Tehran to meet Shah Reza Pahlevi. For the two it is love at first sight, and within a few months a magnificient wedding at the palace takes place. Now suddenly Soraya is the Empress of Persia, a dream come true….or so she believed. Life at the palace turns out to be harsh. Soraya is abused by her mother in law for her European attitudes; even the Shah has himself become a mystery to Soraya and matters are worsened by the empire’s intensifying political and economic crisis. Soraya realizes too late that their marriage was motivated not only by love but also for political reasons; that her most critical duty is to provide an heir to the throne in order to strengthen the royal family against their political opponents. When Soraya is unable to become pregnant, the Shah is tragically forced to choose between love and empire…..
Biopic of Soraya Esfandiary-Bakhtiari, the second wife of the last Shah of Iran, who was overthrown in the 1979’s Islamic Revolution.