Prominent Iran Filmmaker Ebrahim Golestan Dies At 100

By AFP - Agence France Presse

Prominent Iranian filmmaker and writer Ebrahim Golestan has died in Britain, his family said. He was 100.

Golestan was an influential figure in Iran during the 20th century who was widely celebrated as a pioneer of modern Iranian cinema.

"Father, you're gone. Goodbye!" his daughter Lily said in an Instagram post late Wednesday.

Golestan was born in October 1922 in the southern city of Shiraz.

He set up Iran's first film studio in 1957 where he shot his first feature film "Brick and Mirror", an epic indictment of Iranian society.

In 1974, he presented his movie "The Ghost Valley's Treasure Mysteries" based on a novel he wrote criticising rapid modernisation under the shah's rule.

Throughout his career, he published several novels and short stories which were often influenced by the works of US writers including Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner.

Golestan moved to England shortly after the 1979 Islamic Revolution in which Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was overthrown.

He appeared in a 2022 documentary "See you Friday, Robinson" with French movie director Jean-Luc Godard discussing their views on the filmmaking industry.

His son Kaveh was a prominent photojournalist who was killed in landmine explosion in northern Iraq in 2003.