Director's Statement
Director. Filmmaker. Photographer.
Sam Daniel is a film maker and Theatre Director of Iranian origin who has been living in London since 2007.
In 1996, he studied acting at the Los Angeles Acting School, who performed and directed numerous plays in the US Scene. In 2009, after spending some time as an Entrepreneur in the property business Sam decided to return to Arts and specifically making and directing films and plays which is his real love.
In 2010, he studied further at the Metropolitan Film School in London as a director and film maker, and started work on his first short film “Love is Everything“. This film was one of the first fiction films to feature the Iranian diaspora in the UK.
In 2011 he made his first animated short film “We have to do Something“ which Is being viewed on IMDB Web Site at the moment. He also shot and directed a new movie titled “Devotion“ in the same year.
What is AHU?
Ahu (Gazelle) is any of many antelope species in the genus Gazella or formerly considered to belong to it. The name gazelle comes from Arabic name Gazal.
In mystic concepts, Ahu (Avestan) [from the verbal root ah consciousness of life; cf Sanskrit asu] Sometimes Ahum, Akhum. The most aware and therefore best prepared to rule in the physical world.
Fravashi, on the other hand, is least aware of the material world and yet is the source of awareness and closest to the source of absolute Being. According to later Pahlavi writings Ahu's task is to establish order in the human physical body; therefore it can be considered the ruler in the physical world.
Rumi, 13th century Iranian mystic poet, considers ahu (jan) conscious life, in which the immutable divine knowledge is reflected. Molavi attributes three qualities to jan: consciousness; ability to distinguish between good and evil; and an inclination towards good and resentment towards evil (Massnavi bk 6). Ferdowsi, 10th century Iranian poet, considers kherad (intellect) the preserver of ahu, the first creation and the integral part of jan. In Mazdean literature ahu corresponds to the first of the five life-giving forces or fires namely: ahu, daena, baudha, urvan, and fravashi in the order of awareness; James Darmesteter translates them respectively as: spirit, conscience, intelligence, soul, and fravashi (Yasna 26, 4).
Ahu (Sanskrit) [probably from paro'mhu beyond the range of sight] Invisible, unknown, secret, mysterious; Blavatsky equates it with the Sanskrit eka (one) and Hebrew echod, that which begins an emanation-series from the Unknowable.