🔗 Share this article

Widespread homages have been shared for the legendary Bahram Beyzai, a colossus of Iranian cinema and theatre, who passed away aged 87 in the US.

Homeland in Mourning

The front pages of Iranian newspapers mourn his loss, with dissenting figures and those who reflect nostalgically on the Shah era also offering their respects to Beyzai.

"His passing is a great loss for the cultural heritage of our country," said Prince Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of the last Shah of Iran.

Even though Beyzai's later films were banned in the 1980s by the Islamic regime, a number of prominent officials in the present administration have also acknowledged his legacy to Persian arts.

The Teacher of a Generation

Many of the contemporary generation of Persian directors have expressed their gratitude to him. Award-winning director Jaafar Panahi said that Beyzai taught them "the way to resist oblivion."

Beyzai avoided overtly political content in his work, both as a playwright and a cinematic auteur, and always maintained he tried not to deal in overt messages.

But his oeuvre over many decades places archetypal characters in conflict with oppressive structures of power.

Roots in Tradition

Hailing from a lineage of renowned poets, Beyzai was imbued in the deepest traditions of Iranian artistry from birth.

He first found fame as a playwright, drawing on Persian legend and ritual.

A lifelong fan of cinema, he transitioned to filmmaking in the 1970s.

He won renown as one of the pivotal artists in the groundbreaking movement of Iranian cinema.

Navigating Censorship

His most productive period straddled the time of the Shah and then the revolutionary government that overthrew him—with each regime ever ready to detect subtext that could be interpreted as criticism.

"Beyzai did not choose the easy way. He withstood years of exclusion, enforced quiet, and exile, but he never abandoned his artistic voice and his convictions," stated the filmmaker in his tribute.

The Little Stranger

A few years after the 1979 Revolution, he produced what many consider his masterpiece, Bashu, the Little Stranger, about a small boy who tries to take refuge from the Iran-Iraq war.

It was censored in Iran—as were other films he made in that time—but later voted by film critics as the greatest Iranian film of all time.

The film was screened in a newly remastered print at this year's Venice Film Festival, winning an award for best film in the classics section.

A Hopeful Exile

Beyzai finally left Iran in 2010 and lived out his final days in the US, where he lectured on Iranian culture.

Even after he went into exile, his wife, the actress Mozhdeh Shamsai, said just the sound of the word "Iran" would still bring tears to his eyes—and he remained ever hopeful for a renewed spirit and tomorrow for his homeland.