Explorer, author, trail prospector & travel writer

Fluent In Spanish, French, German, Italian? Want To Help Show The World The Real Iran?

UPDATE: We’ve had an utterly amazing response to this call for translations. Nearly 100 people have volunteered their time in less than 24 hours! Thank you, thank you, thank you – it’s fantastic to see and hear how many of you are on board with what we’re trying to do.

The result is that we are now officially fixed for Spanish, French, German, Italian and Portuguese translations of Karun. We’ve also had tentative offers of Farsi (Persian), Turkish, Polish, Russian, Czech, Romanian, Arabic, Mandarin, Swedish and Dutch!

If you’re a native speaker of these or other less widely-spoken languages, and you want to help, we’d still love to hear from you.

Today I’m appealing directly to those among you who are fluent in Spanish, French, German, Italian, or another widely-spoken world language.

I’m also appealing to you if you share my belief that citizens of traditionally demonised nations – in particular the Iranian people – deserve better than the Western media portrayals their countries have been tarred with.

As you may know, I’ve been working hard on a new adventure film about a journey I made in Iran with Leon McCarron last year. We followed Iran’s longest river, the Karun, from source to sea, in an attempt to present a more balanced picture of this misunderstood nation.

What we saw and experienced as a result was nothing less than mind-blowing.

Check out the trailer below:

The film is due for release towards the end of this year, and we think as many people as possible around the world should have the opportunity to vicariously experience a journey in this wonderful and humbling country – a journey defined and made memorable not by the landscapes or adrenaline but by the Iranians we met along the way.

We have already have English-language subtitles for the entire film, for the benefit of the hard of hearing.

But if we can get these subtitles translated into Spanish, French, German and Italian, it’ll increase the potential reach of the film many times over.

Professional translation services do of course exist. But we’ve produced this film on what is a relatively tiny budget, and it unfortunately won’t extend to getting multiple language subtitles created.

There is, however, an alternative. My previous adventure film Janapar is now subtitled in no less than 13 languages – thanks entirely to the generosity of a small army of volunteer translators who shared our belief in the core message of the film, and donated their time to that cause.

Would you like to be part of the next project, and help us build a wider cultural understanding of Iran and the Iranian people by doing so?

While the film will primarily benefit in Spanish, French, German and Italian, we’d welcome any and all other commonly spoken languages too, including Portuguese, Russian, Arabic, and of course Farsi (Persian) itself.

You don’t need to be an expert in any special software to do this.

In fact, we can give you a massive headstart by using Google Translate to translate the subtitles automatically – we just need native speakers to check them for accuracy and make corrections where necessary.

In return, you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing your work has enabled this story to reach potentially millions more viewers.

We’ll also invite you as a VIP to the film’s premiere, give you copies of the film on DVD to keep or give away, and give you a special thank-you in the end credits!

Does this sound like something you’d like to be part of? Do you have time over the next week or two to help us get the Karun subtitle translations right in your native language?

Click here to contact Leon and I directly and get the ball rolling!


Comments

9 responses to “Fluent In Spanish, French, German, Italian? Want To Help Show The World The Real Iran?”

  1. We just get back from a three weeks trip to Iran and Kurdistan part of Iran/Iraq, people of Iran are simply amazing. regarding the film, are you considering Arabic ?? 🙂 maybe we can help

    1. Hey Hussain,
      Unrelated to the film (which I am looking forward to seeing). I thought the situation in Kurdistan was very unstable and dangerous at the moment? What was your experience like out in that area? Cheers!

  2. Hi, I can help you with Farsi translation. Best regards, Noushin

  3. I can help with German.

  4. Widely spoken languages and you miss Portuguese. Check out the stats 🙂

  5. I can help you in italian – i’m not native but i study italian translations… Well, my italian is on a high level, but not native, however, i think i can count on my italian native friends to help me in the final effect.

    And – of course – I can help you also in polish version, if you would need it 🙂

    Have a nice day!

  6. Hi there! Can I get more info, please? I can help with Italian language. I’m a native speaker.
    Thank you

  7. francesco avatar
    francesco

    Ciao! I’m fluent in Italian, French, Spanish and English. I’m biker, sportsman, traveller (just done a one month solo bike trip in Mongolia and China in August)

  8. Hi! I can help you in translation on Russian or Ukrainian. I’m native speaker in these languages.

Leave a Reply