What it means
اکران (ekran) is the Persian word for a film’s theatrical release, the period when a movie is playing in commercial cinemas. The word is a French loan from écran (screen), absorbed into Persian during the early twentieth century along with the rest of the cinema vocabulary. In film criticism and entertainment news, the word is everywhere: the announcement of an ekran, the box-office numbers from the first week of ekran, the news that a film has finally received permission for ekran after years of waiting.
Unlike نمایش (namayesh), the broad word for any showing, ekran is specifically commercial cinema. A film festival has a namayesh of films; a film “goes on ekran” when it opens in regular theaters for the paying public.
How to use it
The word lives in entertainment journalism and casual film talk. The headline construction “روی پرده رفت” (ruye parde raft, went on the screen) is the verbal alternative; اکران شد (ekran shod, was released) is the more common phrasing.
in film hafte-ye ayande ekran misahvad.
This film will be released next week.
این فیلم هفته آینده اکران میشود.
ekran-e in film panj sal be ta’viq oftad.
The release of this film was delayed five years.
اکران این فیلم پنج سال به تعویق افتاد.
The release that does not happen
Ekran in Iran is a political event as much as a commercial one. Films must clear the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance before release. Some films wait years for permission; some are made and never go on ekran at all; some receive a limited ekran and are then quietly pulled. The phrase توقیف شد (towqif shod, was banned) appears in entertainment news next to ekran with depressing regularity. For Iranian filmmakers, finishing a film and getting it onto ekran are two separate and uncertain achievements.
Where it comes from
Ekran is a French loanword, from écran (screen), entering Persian through the cinema industry in the early decades of the twentieth century. France was the major reference point for early Iranian film culture, supplying both equipment and vocabulary. Persian also borrowed سینما from French cinéma in the same period. The word is now so naturalized that few speakers think of it as foreign; the Persian phonology and the loss of the French accent make it sound native.
References
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