"Titanic" a hit in Tehran

TEHRAN, May 19 (AFP) - "Titanic," the Hollywood blockbuster about the doomed luxury liner, has sailed into thousands of homes in the Iranian capital, where the film's star Leonardo DiCaprio has become a teenagers' idol.

Available in mediocre quality after being taped illegally with a hand-held videocamera from big screens abroad and repeatedly copied for distribution, the movie directed by James Cameron is the most popular film on the black market.

The tragic ending of the cruise after the biggest ship of its time hit an iceberg and sank dominates conversations at gatherings in the more affluent districts of northern Tehran. "Have you seen 'Titanic?'" is a question invariably asked at parties and family reunions.

Acknowledging a passion among young people for "Titanic," the Iranian authorities have granted permission for a video screening of the movie at a cultural center in the northwest of the capital.

The showing was suspended for two months, however, with the arrival of Moharram, when the population mourns the death of 7th-century Shiite Moslem leader Imam Hossein.

In a rare move, the government newspaper Iran ran a full-page story recently on the April 14, 1912 sinking of the White Star liner headlined: "The Greatest Maritime Tragedy of the Century."

Newspapers and movie reviewers have in the past weeks published numerous articles on the international box-office success of the film, which cost more than 200 million dollars to make and scooped up 11 Academy Awards.

DiCaprio, 23, has emerged as a new hearthrob for teenaged Iranian girls, some of whom carry a passport-sized picture of the American star in their wallets.

"It is a beautiful, healthy love story and not violent," said Jila, a Tehran teenager who saw a shortened version of the epic about two class-crossed lovers at the Ebn Sina cultural house in Shahrak-e-Qods, northwest of Tehran.

The success of "Titanic" here confirms the Iranian public's passion for American movies, which have recently been making a gradual comeback for the first time since the 1979 Islamic revolution. "No other movie has generated so much interest among the young here as this film since the revolution," said a university professor.

American cinema, actively present in Iran before 1979, was shunned after the revolution as a symbol of Western decadence. But decade-old censored US films were shown on Iran's state television during the new year holiday in late March.

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