Mohammad Reza Aslani
Important movies: Wind Chess
A filmmaker who became famous for his poems before cinema and then used the same lyrical poetry in his films. Aslani was born in Azar 1322 in Rasht. In addition to poetry and cinema, he is also active in the field of art research. He studied painting at the Art University and in the 40s he was one of the modern poets who founded the volume poetry movement under the leadership of Yadullah Royai.
In 1346, he entered the cinema with the documentary film “Jam Hassanlou and the story of someone who asks” produced by Fereydoun Rahnama. He was the writer and director of several documentary projects and also wrote the film “Suzanban” which was directed by Manouchehr Tayab. Perhaps few people know that Aslani is the screenwriter of one of the most important social works before the revolution of Iranian cinema, “Tangna” by Amir Naderi.
In 1353, Aslani made the series “Samak Ayar” based on one of the ancient Iranian texts. His most important film before the revolution is “Chess in the Wind”, which was made in 1355 and was shown only once in 1357 and was always banned, and recently the restored version of it circulated on virtual networks.
“Wind Chess” is the story of an aristocratic family that fights over the division of inheritance after the death of a great family member. Aslani did not work for a long time after the revolution until he returned to cinema in 1375 by making a documentary. His last feature film “Green Fire” was made in 2006, which caused a lot of controversy among critics, and some praised Aslani’s direction and tone, while others said that the film was pointless. After that, he made several documentaries and currently he has a screenplay in hand, which he wants to make if the conditions are right.
Rakhshan Bani Etemad
Important movies: Blue Scarf, Nargis, Under the Skin of the City
Born in April 1333 in Tehran, Bani Etemad is the mother of the famous actress Baran Kothari. He is an Iranian director, screenwriter, and producer who was able to become one of the members of the Oscar Academy. Graduated from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts with a degree in film directing.
Before the revolution, he made several documentaries and in 1366, he made his first feature film as a director in front of the camera by making the movie “Out of Range”. From the very beginning, he was interested in making social films. His second film called “Canary Yellow” was welcomed by the audience and critics. A film that dealt with the fights and scams of brokers during the war. In the 70s, he made several important films centered on women, among which “Darges” and “Blue Scarf” are his best. The first one is about the strange bond between a mother and a son that is ruined by the arrival of another woman, and the second one is about a woman who is forced to fight for love across the class gap.
“Under the Skin of the City” (produced in 2009) is one of the most prominent works of Iranian social cinema about the working class and their hardships and migration. Although in 1392, his film “Kaseha” won the screenplay award of the Venice Film Festival, but since the beginning of the 1980s, Bani Etamed has not made a lasting film except for “Gilaneh”.
Bahram Baizai
Important movies: Passengers, Death of Yazdgerd, Basho Gharibeh Koch
Bahram Beyzaei’s title is Ostad Barazende. Whether you like his movies or not, he is one of the most important cinema, theater directors, and art researchers in Iran. Baidaei was born in January 1317. He loved cinema since childhood. He studied Persian literature at Tehran University, which he left half-finished. He was one of the founders of the Iranian Writers Association and a member of a theater group, and for this reason, Savak always caused him trouble.
Beyzaei was interested in Ta’ziyeh and the old performance methods of Iran and did a lot of research on them. He started acting in the 1940s, and at the end of this decade, he started teaching at the Faculty of Fine Arts of Tehran University. The center for the intellectual development of children and teenagers gave him the opportunity to make his dream of filmmaking come true by making “Uncle Mustache”.
In the 1950s, he pursued filmmaking more seriously, the result of which is a number of important films of the new wave of Iranian cinema, including “Ragbar” and “Crow”, “Gharibeh and Fog” and “Tara’s Guerrilla”. After the revolution, he made the film “Death of Yazdgerd”, which was banned. His cooperation with Sosan Taslimi in films such as “Basho Gharibeh-ye Kochach”, which was an anti-war work, and “Maybe another time” formed one of the best director-actor pairs in Iranian cinema.
Baizai is so obsessed with filmmaking that the gap between his films is sometimes close to a decade. In 1380, he made the movie “Dog Killing” that long queues formed in front of the cinemas to see this movie.
His last film “When We Are Sleeping” (1387) did not find Iqbal the success of his other films and of course caused controversial duels among critics in the criticism of Iranian cinema. Baizai has left Iran for many years and is teaching at Stanford University.
Undoubtedly, he is one of the greatest treasures of Iranian culture and art.