"... beautifully produced." - Hollywood Reporter

"...recommended." - Video Librarian

In 2009 the surprising bestselling poet in America is a thirteenth-century Sufi poet and mystic named Jelaluddin Rumi. For seven hundred years, Rumi’s writings have enchanted, inspired, and enlightened Muslims, Jews, Christians, Hindus, and Buddhists. Rumi’s poetry celebrates the sacred in everyday existence and transcends boundaries of time, place, and religion to speak to all people.

Coleman Barks’ "The Essential Rumi" has sold over 100,000 copies and he is considered the preeminent translator of Rumi today. In 1995, Barks saw filmmaker Haydn Reiss’ documentary "William Stafford & Robert Bly: A Literary Friendship" and suggested to Reiss that a film about Rumi would be timely.

"RUMI: Poet of the Heart:," produced and directed by Haydn Reiss, features Barks along with poet/translator Robert Bly (who in 1976 encouraged Barks to begin to translate Rumi); author Deepak Chopra, storyteller and mythologist Michael Meade, and religious historian and author of "The World’s Religions", Huston Smith. Oud virtuoso Hamza El Din and musician Jai Uttal offer inspiring accompaniment to this beautifully produced film. A lively and provocative exploration of the genius and timeliness of Rumi’s emergence in the west.

"At the end of our wanderings there is only the soul’s yearning to return to God. No one speaks that yearning better than Rumi. No one, these days, does Rumi better than Coleman Barks." - Ram Dass

"Perhaps the world’s greatest spiritual poet - the gold of Rumi pours down through Coleman’s words." - Jack Kornfield, author of "A Path With Heart"

"Through Coleman Barks’ inspired renderings, we tired, modern people have come not only to love Rumi, but even - a little - to love Who and What Rumi himself loved." - Jacob Needleman, author of "The Heart of Philosophy and Money and the Meaning of Life"

Haydn Reiss' newest film project is 'EVERY WAR HAS TWO LOSERS: A poet's meditation on peace.