Tehran, Iran:

One in all Iran’s most distinguished film-makers, Dariush Mehrjui, was stabbed to demise on Saturday night alongside his spouse at their dwelling close to Tehran.

A provincial chief justice mentioned Dariush Mehrjui and his spouse, Vahideh Mohammadifar, “had been killed by a number of stab wounds to the neck”, the judiciary’s Mizan On-line web site mentioned.

In accordance with Hossein Fazeli-Harikandi, chief justice of Alborz province close to Tehran, Dariush Mehrjui despatched a textual content message to his daughter, Mona, at about 9:00 pm native time (1730 GMT) inviting her for dinner at their dwelling in Karaj, west of Tehran.

However upon her arrival an hour and a half later, she discovered the our bodies of her useless mother and father with deadly wounds to their necks.

Later within the day, police mentioned “no indicators of compelled entry could be seen on the crime scene”, including that “no harm has been accomplished to the doorways” of their dwelling.

Nevertheless, they mentioned “traces have been discovered” on the scene they consider to be “associated to the assassin”.

In accordance with Iran’s ISNA information company, quoting the police headquarters, 4 suspects have been recognized for his or her hyperlinks with the case and two have been arrested.

On Sunday, the Etemad newspaper included an interview with the film-maker’s spouse saying she had been threatened and that their dwelling had been burgled.

“The investigation revealed that no complaints had been filed relating to the unlawful entry into the Dariush Mehrjui’s household villa and the theft of their belongings”, mentioned Fazeli-Harikandi.

– ‘All the things is political’ –

In an announcement, Iran’s minister of tradition, Mohammad-Mehdi Esmaili, hailed Dariush Mehrjui as “one of many pioneers of Iranian cinema” and “the creator of everlasting works”.

Born on December 8, 1939 in Tehran, Dariush Mehrjui studied philosophy in america earlier than his return to Iran the place he launched a literary journal and launched his first movie in 1967, “Diamond 33”, a parody of the James Bond sequence.

The 83-year-old was indelibly related to the Iranian new wave of cinema, along with his 1969 movie “The Cow” one of many motion’s first footage.

He then directed a string of well-regarded movies together with “Mr Gullible” (1970), “The Cycle” (1977) earlier than leaving Iran within the wake of the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Between 1980 and 1985, he lived in France the place he labored on the documentary “Journey to the Land of Rimbaud” (1983).

On returning to his homeland, he triumphed on the field workplace with “The Tenants” (1987).

In 1990, he directed “Hamoun”, a darkish comedy exhibiting 24 hours within the lifetime of an mental laid low with divorce and psychological anxieties in an Iran overwhelmed by the expertise firms Sony and Toshiba.

All through the Nineteen Nineties, Dariush Mehrjui additionally depicted the lives of girls in “Sara” (1993), “Pari” (1995) and “Leila” (1997), a melodrama about an infertile lady who encourages her husband to marry a second lady.

In interviews with the Iranian media, Dariush Mehrjui mentioned he was “drastically influenced” by Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman and Italian Michelangelo Antonioni.

“I do not make immediately political movies to advertise a specific ideology or standpoint. However every thing is political,” he as soon as mentioned.

To Dariush Mehrjui, cinema was like “poetry, which can not take sides with anybody” and he remained adamant that “artwork should not turn into a propaganda software”.

Along with his cinema profession, he translated works by the French playwright Eugene Ionesco and the German Marxist thinker Herbert Marcuse into Persian.

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