In his ingenious mixed-media series "Rostam 2 – Return," the Iranian artist Siamak Filizadeh transports the mythical Persian hero Rostam into the context of the present day. Riding a souped-up hybrid vehicle—half horse, half motorcycle—Rostam 2 performs his deeds of valor against the backdrop of twenty-first-century Tehran. Filizadeh has cleverly and seamlessly refashioned this ancient account, enacted across four generations and set amidst tragedy, romance, and heroism, in much the same manner as director Baz Luhrmann modernized Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet in the 1996 film version. But in his retelling of this classic Persian tale from the Shahnameh or Book of Kings, the Iranian national epic, Filizadeh bypasses its universalities in favor of more specific social commentary. As with other literary masterpieces, the Shahnameh has an appeal and an elasticity that has allowed successive generations to discover or invent new meanings. Filizadeh's Spiderman, more like a child in a Spiderman suit than the actual superhero, seems not to be the deus ex machina. Instead, Rostam 2 guns down the petite Spiderman in a quiet park-like setting with the city beyond, and within view of a dumpster and a billboard advertising Longine watches.

• Komaroff, Linda. "The Return Engagement of Rostam," In Ferdowsi, the Mongols and the History of Iran: Art, Literature and Culture from Early Islam to Qajar Persia: Studies in Honour of Charles Melville, edited by Robert Hillenbrand, A.C.S. Peacock, and Firuza Abdullaeva, 381-90. London: I.B. Taurus, 2013.
• Milz, Manfred, ed. Painting the Persian Book of Kings Today: Ancient Text and Modern Images. Cambridge: Talking Tree Books, 2010.