The film -- Farzand-e Sobh (The Morning's Child) -- is set to be released in Iran in February during the official celebrations for the 30th anniversary of the Islamic revolution.

Carefully avoiding the approach of an all-out biographical epic, the film focuses on Khomeini's childhood in his parents' home in the central city of Khomein, with a few glimpses of him returning from seminary studies in Arak.

But it also includes flash-forwards to Khomeini's sermons railing against the rule of shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in the 1960s which led to his arrest by the notorious SAVAK secret police and exile from Iran.