IFP- Shoppers and cinemagoers in a major mall in central Tehran were terrified to death on Monday night when they saw a group of ISIS terrorists, with guns and horses, entering Kourosh Mall and Cineplex, shouting �Allahu Akbar�, and intimidating the citizens.
They, however, were not real terrorists. They were a group of actors dressed in ISIS militants� costumes and were there to promote the film �Damascus Time�, an Iranian movie about the Islamic Republic�s fight against terrorism in Iraq and Syria.



The weird stunt immediately sparked harsh reactions among the people there and shocked the social media users who later watched the footages.

A clip filmed by one of the people inside the shopping mall shows a parent shouting at the ISIS-like actors, asking them, �What if a woman or a child is shocked by your freaky show here? Who is responsible for such a stupid move? Who the hell did tell you to dress up like this?�

After thousands of tweets and posts in various social media to criticize the move, Ebrahim Hatamikia, the director of the film, issues a statement and said he was unaware of the promotion, and sincerely apologizes to all those hurt and scared by the show.

�I thought a person with red beards (like ISIS militants) is going to stand outside the mall and let the fans take selfies with him. I didn�t know there would be horses, screams, and crowds inside the mall.�

�The show was definitely beneath the dignity of my film,� he added.

Damascus Time, shot in Iran and Syria, stars Hadi Hejazifar, Babak Hamidian and a number of Syrian and Iraqi actors.

It tells the story of an Iranian pilot and his son as co-pilot who are seized by ISIS forces in Syria when are in the country to deliver a cargo of humanitarian relief supplies to people in a war-torn region.

The film was produced by the Owj Arts and Media Organisation, an institution based in Tehran, producing revolutionary works in art and cinema.
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