In January 2006, while searching for a filmmaker to help me produce my videos, I contacted Sascha Bruhn. At that point, I had already met with six other filmmakers, none being the right one. After getting to know Sascha and seeing some of his work, I felt we were on the same wavelength. We shared similar opinions regarding worldly questions, which served as a basis for our cooperation. My views are not only important for cooperating with people in general, they are the foundation of my music.

Although he initially liked me and my music, he later confided in me that he was hesitant since he was working on several other projects. He was on a tight schedule. Eventually, curiosity and the desire to work on an unusual project got the better of him. I assured Sascha that I would do as many preparatory and organisational duties as possible in order to relieve him of work. Shortly later we began working on our first video, "Yade Khorshid".

This song's text consists of two parts. The first part of the song, which I wrote and recited, is in dedication of the heroic martyrdom of Babak Khoramdin, a Persian commander who died fighting for Persian liberation in 838 AD.

The second part, the sung text, is a poem by the Persian poet Hafiz. The lyrics are extremely eloquent and demanding. Roughly speaking, they're about love in the form of a human being seen from the perspective a mystic poet. A theme that is not easily put into pictures or a concrete representation. As a result, we chose a concept that focused on my singing and incorporated very little in the way of visual effects. The seemingly calm walk out of the city to a beautiful and calm winter's lake turned out to be an obstacle course. To get filming permits for all of the places we wanted to film at was logistically impossible. As a result, we had to deal with all of the curious pedestrians who turned around and looked into the camera. That meant we had to film 20 retakes, in chilly temperatures as low as 20 degrees, to make sure that we had occasional moments that were unobserved. The result being a very time consuming editing process.

The scene at the lake required a sunny day. Therefore, the film crew had to be extremely flexible considering it was the middle of winter and the weather forecast wasn't reliable. As a result, Valentina Redowski, who played the female role in the video, had to be sent home one day due to poor weather, despite a favourable weather forecast.

Setare ("The Star" here as a woman's name) is a love song in 6/8 time that doesn't have a specific story line. The song consists of various expressions of love to a woman who is to be won back. Sascha was not happy with my initial suggestion of a live performance video.

After we had already used a very purist concept for the "Yade Khorshid" video, Sascha wanted to take advantage of the wider subject matter to create a concept that focused on telling a story. We strived to combine the idea of a performance with a plot based on trying to win back a woman. The basic idea was to present me as a normal musician who wanted to win back his lost love from a rich, arrogant rival.

This story, with all its actors, action and camera angles, required an enormous preparation. Yet it had to be told in a very short amount of time, which intensified the preparation phase. An important task was finding a location that would suit the style of the well-off rival. After a long search I found a classy restaurant in Cologne called Bosporus that met our expectations. Intense research and castings were required in order fill the main and supporting roles with oriental actors. During a long rehearsal phase, we choreographically constructed the complete sequence since the story line ran linear to the length of the song, which meant there was no way to rectify mistakes during the filming.

Finally we were ready. On the day of the filming all of the actors, extras and the technical team showed up. A reporter and photographer from the local newspaper, Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, also appeared to cover the event.

Just before starting the shoot, my brother accidentally knocked over and broke one of the eight lamps that we painstakingly looked for and bought in several branches of a hardware chain the day before. These lamps not only served as the primary source of lighting, they were also the primary props in the restaurant. Sascha informed me that the shoot would possibly have to be postponed if the problem couldn't be solved. I was stunned. Would all of the enormous preparatory efforts be foiled by one cheap decoration lamp? Fortunately, Sascha's assistant director, Nina, was able to repair the lamp with some white transparency film. The repair was invisible to the camera so we were able to continue and stay on schedule.

To Begoo Doosam Dary ("Say That You Love Me") is in turn a dance and love song. When Sascha first heard this tune, he pictured a clique of jovial friends wandering through woods and fields on a hot summer's evening. Apart from the fact that it was winter in Cologne and a shoot abroad was financially impossible, I had the desire to once again work with a story. I envisioned a story that took place in a dance school and incorporated a salsa element.

Within minutes, Sascha developed the basic concept for the video, including the integration of both elements that I wanted. I liked the concept right away and could picture the video before my eyes. So the "summertime festival" turned into a "night time nightmare." This video required a great deal of preparation too. I spent a quite some time on the telephone and in appointments finding an old-fashioned dance school, a dance instructing couple, my dance partner, a choreographer, costumes for the extras, and much more. This time the costumes turned out to be a stumbling block. I informed Sascha that some of my friends and acquaintances serving as extras in the video didn't like the outfits and make-up. Persians always want to look "good" according to their "own" style and taste, especially if they are on camera. I wanted them to feel comfortable during the shoot so I strove for a compromise. At that point, Sascha began questioning himself whether or not he was getting carried away. He wondered if the "Bruhn" style might be too much for a simple Persian pop song. As one can see in "Mediathek," Sascha is usually engaged in films ranging from dark to horror. We had never wanted things to get this surrealistic. Just as for "Setare", it was important to establish a contrast between the conservative dance students, my dance partner, and me. When I finally showed Sascha my outfit for the video, he said that it did not distinguish me enough from the elegantly dressed dance students. After another endless number of phone calls, I was able to convince everyone to accept our original concept and appear on camera in this strange, but effective manner. We knew that our video would only work if all parodies were presented in a subtle and humorous way. That wasn't always easy in a 60-hour period with almost no sleep. The filming took three days non-stop like a real Bollywood production, with only one small difference: a second team didn't relieve us.

Dokhtaraye Kuchike Ma ("Our Little Girls") is a song about prostitution in Iran.

This issue is marked by deep tragedy. The pain of those who sell themselves to secure not only their survival, but that of their families too, is no longer an isolated case in Iran. I wrote the lyrics to this song in a pub in Düsseldorf in the winter of 2003 during a friend's visit. He had recently returned from Iran and depicted the circumstances. This song has the substance of a tear. Yet, even a raining winter's sky full of tears could not express the grief that marks the fate of these young women.

Above all, I wanted three linking elements in the video. First, a special dance combining marital arts, Hip-Hop and jazz dance. Second, real footage from Iran. Third, my voice in an old ruin.

Since we envisioned the "liberation dance" as being the key element in the video, Sascha felt its location should contrast the ruin that I wanted to sing in. Sascha had the inspiration of filming the dance on a green hill surrounded by nothing but nature in all her majesty. After an arduous search, we found such a place in the "Bergisch Land" ("Hilly Land") near Cologne. We found a ruin that closely matched what we had imagined, a derelict industrial park two hours from Cologne. We inspected it together in order to prepare ourselves for the shooting schedule and a discussion with our agent regarding the necessary formalities for attaining a filming permit.

After having contacted numerous dance schools in Cologne and the surrounding area, we invited several choreographers and dancers to an audition. Finding a choreographer who had experience in martial arts choreography was no easy task. Eventually we found Courb who met the requirements and is a great dancer himself. After watching quite a few dancers audition, we chose Elianna Rodriguez. Elianna expressed a lot of emotion when she danced. Unfortunately, we underestimated the preparation time. Elianna had to learn the martial arts element from the ground up. Once again, winter was close at hand, threatening to make an outdoor dance shoot impossible. At that point, we had already filmed "Yade Khorshid" and "Setare" so we decided to move the video for "To Begoo Doosam Dary" ahead.

When the choreography was finally ready for filming, several months later, we faced a new problem. The ruin that we had picked out to sing in had been replaced by new buildings!!!

Sascha suggested several other locations that would produce a similar effect. They were scattered around Cologne, which demanded an immense logistical effort.

On March 11, 2007 at midnight, Sascha and part of our team drove to Ommerborn in order to set up the equipment. A few hours later, I followed with the rest of our crew.

We didn't want to miss the sunrise.

May the sun also rise in the grieving hearts of those who are most vulnerable. I want you to know that people are thinking about you in distant lands. You are not forgotten my dear compatriots!

Forgive me for not being able to do more than feel for you.

Ramtin
Cologne