Dariush Mehrjui

Dariush Mehrjui was born in Tehran in 1318 of the Iranian solar calendar (1939). After completing his early education, he went to the United States and studied philosophy at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). His interest in literature, philosophy, and art shaped his intellectual and artistic development from an early age; after returning to Iran, he began working in cinema.

Mehrjui made his first feature film, Diamond 33, in 1346 of the Iranian solar calendar (1967). With The Cow (1348/1969), based on a story by Gholamhossein Saedi, he became one of the most important figures in Iranian cinema. The Cow approached themes such as poverty, identity, alienation, and psychological breakdown through a symbolic and social lens, and is regarded as an influential work of the Iranian New Wave.

Over several decades, Mehrjui made films marked by philosophical, social, and psychological concerns. Mr. Naive, The Cycle, The Tenants, Hamoun, Banoo, Sara, Pari, and Leila are among his major works. Hamoun in particular holds a distinctive place in Iranian film culture for its treatment of the crisis of meaning, the relation between tradition and modernity, and the bewilderment of the Iranian intellectual.

Alongside filmmaking, Mehrjui was active in translation and literature. He translated works by writers and thinkers such as Eugène Ionesco and Herbert Marcuse into Persian. His cinema created a link between thought, literature, and image, and many of his works addressed the existential, ethical, and social problems of modern human beings.

Dariush Mehrjui and his wife, Vahideh Mohammadifar, were murdered in their private home in Karaj on 14 October 2023.