A breathtaking animated film based on Khalil Gibran’s critically acclaimed 1923 book of poems, ‘The Prophet,’ has now been released on DVD and streaming.
The full-length film, which ran in a very limited release in theaters last year, was co-produced by Salma Hayek and features the voice talents of of Hayek, Liam Neeson, Quvenzhané Wallis, and John Krasinski, and a performance by Yo-Yo Ma.
The filmmakers chose eight of the most beloved of the book’s 26 prose poetry essays and assigned them to eight innovative animators from around the world to interpret them in their own distinct styles. The lush visuals accompany chapters on love, children, freedom, marriage, good and evil, eating and drinking, work, and death, while the works are read by Liam Neeson, the poet in the film.
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The original story within The Prophet was expanded with new characters, including a young spirited girl. The plot begins in a Mediterranean seaside village where Kamila (Hayek) cleans house for exiled artist and poet Mustafa (Neeson), but the more difficult job is keeping her daughter out of trouble. The three embark on a journey meant to end with Mustafa’s return home – but first they must evade the authorities who fear that the poets truthful words will spark rebellion.
Bonus features on the DVD take audiences behind the scenes of The Prophet, giving fans an opportunity to see how the film was created.
Hayek, who is of Lebanese descent, spent almost ten years working to bring the popular inspirational fiction to life. The author Gibran (1883–1931), a Lebanese-American writer who was also an accomplished painter, was born in the town of Bsharri in modern-day Lebanon. As a young man he emigrated with his mother and siblings to the United States (Boston) where he began studying art and launched his literary career. The Prophet was published in 1923, been translated into 40 languages, and has never gone out of print.
Gibran instructed that on his death the royalties and copyrights to his materials be owned by his hometown in Lebanon, where the Gibran Museum is now located.
If you or your family are not already familiar with the poems in The Prophet, which have turned Gibran into the third best selling poet in the world, behind Shakespeare and Lao-Tzu, this animated film would be a wonderful way to introduced them.
(WATCH the film’s official trailer below)
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