Dariush Mehrjui

Ali and his father go from their poor neighborhood in the outskirts of the city to a hospital so that Ali’s father can be treated for his sickness. However since they have no money, Ali starts to work for Dr. Sameri who deals in blood.Read More »

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Set against the stunning landscape of rural Iran, Shirak is a symbolic rural drama centered on a young boy who lives in a small agricultural village that is being terrorized by wild boars. When his father is mauled to death by the boars during an attack on one of the village fields, Shirak suddenly finds himself the head of the household. Determined to hunt down the dangerous animals and kill them, he picks dates in order to be able to purchase a watchdog from one of the local villagers. Together, Shirak and his dog confront the beasts when they attack the village. While filming Shirak in 1988, his eleventh film, Mehrjui observed, ‘I can remark that this film is different from my other works. Read More »

Two brothers are involved in a dispute over a house in urban Tehran. It is only through a series of adventures with the tenants that they are able to settle their differences.Read More »

The School We Went To based on a story by Fereydoon Doostdar and Dariush Mehrjui and starring Ali Nassirian. Plot Summary: At the Justice on the Horizons School everything turns on bullying and threats from the school principal. The students are unhappy about this situation and they complain about it in the Wall newspaper. The principal is frightened about the opening of the eyes and ears of the students and he shuts down the Wall. The students protest and with the cooperation of the literature teacher they persuade the principal to agree to the remounting of the Wall newspaper. Some people have seen the film as an allegory for the 1978 Iranian revolution while others have criticized it as propaganda driven more by the Islamic regime than by Mehrjui.Read More »

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While on the surface Mr. Gullible contains all the hallmarks of a good comedy, at its heart this movie portrays with uncommon clarity the pitfalls of love and the pain of betrayal. When the protagonist leaves his small village and travels to Tehran to find a wife, he does so with all the gusto and naivete of one who has not experienced the world. Yet even when Mr. Gullible encounters some of the harsh realities of the big city, he is not dissuaded from accomplishing his mission to find a bride. When he finally meets what he believes is the perfect woman, Mr Gullible showers her with gifts and asks her to marry him. However, his romantic visions of life with his lady love are obliterated when he discovers her true identity. Festivals/Awards: Special Jury Prize at the Moscow International Film Festival, 1971; Best film, best direction, best screenplay, best actress, best supporting actor at the Third National Film Festival Sepas, 1971.Read More »

This highly symbolic Iranian drama (shot in black-and-white) revolves around the most important figure in a remote rural village. That figure is the village’s sole cow, owned by Mashdi Hassan (Ezat Entezani). The beginning of the film makes clear just how vital the cow is to the life of the village and how much Mashdi and his neighbors cherish it. When the cow is threatened and then killed by members of a nearby clan, Mashdi becomes so distraught that he is gradually transformed into a cow himself. One highlight of this film is the glimpse it offers into a style of rural life which has gone unchanged for thousands of years.Read More »

Sara is the perfect young housewife, eager to serve. When husband Hessam requires an expensive emergency operation abroad, it is she who get the funds. For the next three years, it is Sara, labouring secretly to pay the shady loan and save Hessam’s manly pride. Until the truth is revealed and with it, the reality of her marriage.Read More »

The film Santoori by the accomplished Iranian director Dariush Mehrjui tells the tale of a drug addict fighting with his inner and outer demons. With a raw and honest look, the film captures the devastation of drug addiction and how a society can push someone in that direction. Santoori an artist vs. society musical drama, goes deep within Tehran’s society, its problems with drugs and the ill treatments of drug addicts.Read More »

A man contemplates life and compares it to a pear tree in his yard which stops producing fruit.

From IMDb:
A quiet gentle film guaranteed to soothe the most jangled nerves with its soft approach to life’s little annoyances and heartbreaks. A writer looks back on his early life as a twelve year old when he lived in a grand mansion and played in the extensive surrounding orchard of fruit trees. I felt like turning off in the first five minutes as the morose writer became more and more depressed with life in general as he struggles for inspiration to write more books and articles. But I’m very glad I kept watching because as he remembers about the happier days of his youth, the dark and shadowy set dissolves into a sun-kissed orchard with a family picnicking under the trees. Read More »