Masoud Kimiaei
Important films: Kaiser, Deer, Lead, Footsteps of the Wolf
Among Iranian filmmakers, Masoud Kimiaei has probably created the most controversies. It has pro-Pakistan supporters and stubborn opponents. Talking about Kimiai cinema is like supporting Esteghlal and Persepolis. He is one of the most important filmmakers in Iran who has tried to make his films in all circumstances since the late 40s when he started making films in this half century.
His view of cinema is not academic and it comes from his love for movies, especially American westerns, since his childhood. The heroes of his films are similar to the heroes of westerns. He founded his own world and language in cinema, and in this sense he and Ali Hatami are similar. with the difference that Kimiaei talks about social issues in his films.
The first film he made was “Beyganeh Biya” (1347), which had the same theme as Persian films, but a year later, “Qaiser” returned with strong direction, cinematic mise-en-scenes and soundtrack, and the brilliant performance of Wathoughi Varagh. Kimiaei used the same formulas as Persian films, but the result was a film about personal revenge against the law, which opened a new path in Iranian cinema. From “Kaiser” dialogues and sequences of alchemy films became the most lasting dialogues and sequences of Iranian cinema. Kimiaei knows image and music very well, and for this reason, he knows very well how to arrange his scene and what music to put on it to have the most emotional load on the audience.
It takes a long time to talk about the most important and best alchemical films. Almost everyone is unanimous that with the films “Qaiser”, “Reza Motori” and “Gozenha” in a ten-year span, Kimiai had the best achievement in the cinema before the revolution. After the revolution, it took him three years to make his first film “The Red Line”. A movie that had the same image as a slogan of Sawakis and it was not a strong effect. In the late 60s, he seemed to find his way again and made two films, “Lead” and “Snake’s Teeth”, which are among the best films in his career.
Many say that in 1370 and after the making of “Trails of the Wolf”, Kimiyai cinema never reached its peak, but there are other critics who include the first half hour of “Banquet” (1374), “Sultan” (1375) and “Atraz” (1378). They know the good movies of Iranian cinema.
Unfortunately, the 90s is the era of Masoud Kimiaei’s decline. The three films he made in this decade, “Metropole”, “Kathil Ahli” and “Blood” are confused in terms of narrative (which is the main problem of Kimiyai’s films) and even in terms of decoupage and direction (which is the strength of his works). We are waiting to see how his fourth movie “Treason” works.
Ibrahim Golestan
Important movies: Clay and Mirror, Asrar Ganj Dareh Jeni
Ebrahim Golestan is an Iranian filmmaker, writer and intellectual born in Mehr 1301. Golestan was born in a famous family in Shiraz and went to Tehran to study law in the early 20s. During his student period, he became a student and left his studies at the university half-finished. In 1326, he left the party and published his first book, and then he was employed in the oil company.
He started making documentaries for the oil company and in 1336 he established his own film studio called Golestan Studio. Ebrahim Golestan has only two feature films “Kasht and Aineh” and “Secrets of the Genie Valley” in his career, but both of these films have been influential in the history of Iranian cinema.
“Clay and Mirror” was the beginning of the new wave of Iranian cinema. The story of a man who is a taxi driver and a woman leaves her baby in his car one night. The man takes the child to his fiancee and his fiancee becomes interested in the child. But against the request of the woman, the man leaves the child to the orphanage. It is a bitter movie that is different from the movies of that time in terms of structure and story.
Golestan’s second film, “Secrets of the Geni Valley”, is a political work that mocks Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and his reforms. Of course, Golestan expresses his objections so subtly and subtly in signs that maybe no one will notice the sharpness of the film. Even at that time, they say that it was only Amir Abbas Hoyda who noticed the ironies of Golestan movie and stopped its release.
Golestan has been the producer of one of the most important documentaries in the history of Iranian cinema, “The Black House” by Forough Farrokhzad, about leprosy patients. Of course, Golestan has had a wider presence in literature and has caused many controversies with his frank language.
Fereydon Ghale
Important movies: Hive, Honeymoon
He is one of the important pioneers of Iranian social cinema. Gole, born in 1319, studied literature at Mashhad University and then went to New York School of Dramatic Arts. In 1347, he made his first film called “Night of Angels”. In 1351, he became a popular director with the films “Kafir” and especially “Dashneh” starring Forozan and Behrouz Vostoghi. His films were generally bitter and the lives of his characters were full of complexity and hardship. “Dashneh” had the elements of a Persian film, but presented a very humane and empathetic image of the evil woman and the man who falls in love with her, which, unlike Persian films, not only did not distance the audience from the real world but threw them into the world full of the suffering of these characters.
The most important film in his career is “The Hive” which was made in 1354. A film in which a wounded and lonely hero had a free hand. Abby “Hive” is one of the most popular characters in most polls of critics. Among Gole’s works, the film has the best direction and is considered the beginning of social cinema in Iran. A film that is one of the works of the new wave of Iranian cinema. A year after that, Gole made his last film in 1355. He lived in Iran after the revolution and died in 2004 due to a heart attack at his home in Matalqo.