Rumi Returning Wows Santa Fe, New Mexico

Thu Dec 13, 2007 8:45am EST
 
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SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., Dec. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- In proclaiming the 2007 Santa
Fe Film Festival's "great pleasure to present the US premiere of Rumi
Returning," Jon Bowman, Executive Director of the festival, noted that, "This
is exactly the kind of endeavor we like to get behind -- not only a work of
extreme visual beauty, but also a feature exhibiting immense passion and
conveying a profound, spiritual message certain to resonate deeply with
viewers."
    Resonate deeply, it did.
    On a blustery, December Saturday afternoon at the largest venue in Santa
Fe, the line to see Rumi Returning began forming two hours before the start of
the documentary biopic about the 13th-century Sufi mystic poet who inspired
the whirling dervishes of Turkey.  Hundreds of those hoping to buy last-minute
tickets were turned away.
    "Of the several films I had the opportunity to see at this year's
festival, Rumi Returning was the most beautifully filmed, and the most
thought-provoking and intellectually stimulating," said Bob Ross, a talk show
host for KSFR Public Radio Santa Fe, after the movie.  "For the first time in
my life I truly began to sense the broad importance and beautifulness of the
Islamic religion.  Rumi Returning is simply a magnificent movie that people of
all cultures should see and discuss."
    Discuss, they did.
    Most of the sold-out audience stayed in their seats at the end of the
movie and talked with filmmakers Kell Kearns and Cynthia Lukas.  They did not
leave until organizers suggested it was time to prepare the theater for the
next festival screening.  Seeming to sum up the crowd's reaction, Candace
Mathews declared that, "Its message of universal peace in a time fraught with
strife and uncertainties is a balm."
Bob Ross' thirty-minute Public Radio interview with Kearns and Lukas,
recorded at the Santa Fe Farmers Market, can be heard online at
http://tinyurl.com/2rpcgr .  Information about Rumi Returning can be found
online at http://www.rumireturning.com .  The Santa Fe Film Festival website
is http://www.santafefilmfestival.org .
    Kell Kearns and Cynthia Lukas can be contacted at 480-585-9725.
    This release was issued through eReleases(TM).  For more information,
visit http://www.ereleases.com.
SOURCE  rumireturning.com

Kell Kearns, or Cynthia Lukas, both of rumireturning.com, +1-480-585-9725

 

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