Iranian Director Dariush Mehrjui and Spouse Killed in Stabbing Assault (Experiences)

Famed Iranian movie director Dariush Mehrjui (The Cow, The Pear Tree) was murdered, alongside along with his spouse, in a stabbing assault by an unknown assailant at their residence in Iran, Iranian state media reported on Sunday.

The official IRNA information company quoted Hossein Fazeli, a judiciary official, as saying that Mehrjhi and his spouse, Vahideh Mohammadifar, have been found lifeless at their residence with knife wounds of their necks. Fazeli mentioned the our bodies have been found by the director’s daughter, Mona Mehrjui, on the couple’s residence in a suburb outdoors the Iranian capital Tehran.

Mehrjui, 83, was finest identified for his neo-realistic movies from the early Seventies that helped launch a brand new wave of Iranian cinema. He was a favourite on the worldwide competition scene since The Cow, his second characteristic, gained the FIPRESCI Worldwide Movie Critics Award on the 1971 Venice Movie Pageant. Different honors included the Un Sure Regard award in Cannes in 2002 for To Keep Alive, the Silver Hugo award on the Chicago Movie Pageant in 1998 for The Pear Tree, and prime honors on the 1993 San Sebastian Movie Pageant for Sara.

Like most Iranian administrators, Mehrjui fought state censorship his whole profession, however he was one of many extra outspoken critics of Tehran’s Islamic regime. Final yr, he posted a video blasting the federal government for the suppression of his final, now probably closing, characteristic, A Minor.

Iran’s state media information company IRNA mentioned authorities have been investigating the killings however didn’t speculate on a doable motive. Mehrjui’s spouse had just lately posted on social media a few knife menace.