Iranian cinema pioneer Bahram Beyzai dies at 87

Renowned Iranian filmmaker and playwright Bahram Beyzai has died at the age of 87, passing away on 26 December, his birthday, his wife announced on social media.

Beyzai is widely regarded as a pioneer of the Iranian New Wave, the cinematic movement that emerged in the late 1960s and reshaped Persian filmmaking.

Tributes have poured in from across Iran and the diaspora, including from Prince Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of Iran's last shah, who called Beyzai's death "a great loss for the art and culture of Iran".

Although Beyzai avoided overt political messaging in his work, his films repeatedly drew the ire of authorities.

His 1986 feature Bashu, the Little Stranger, which follows a displaced child seeking refuge from the Iran-Iraq war, was banned for years despite being made with state backing.

Officials objected to its anti-war tone, its emphasis on civilian suffering, and its depictions of ethnic and linguistic diversity that challenged official narratives of sacrifice and martyrdom.

The film is now considered one of the most important in Iranian cinema. In 1999, it was voted the greatest Iranian film of all time by the magazine Picture World, and in 2025, it won best film in the Classics section of the Venice International Film Festival.

Beyond cinema, Beyzai was one of nine founders of the Iranian Writers’ Guild in 1968, a landmark effort to resist censorship and defend authors' independence under the Pahlavi monarchy.

His work continued to confront censorship after the 1979 Iranian Revolution, when he was banned from teaching at the University of Tehran during the early years of the Islamic Republic and the Iranian Cultural Revolution, yet continued writing, directing and publishing.

His screenplays The Fateful Day (1995) and The Fifth Season (1996) were adapted for film, and he edited Ebrahim Hatamikia’s Minoo Tower. His first feature, Downpour (1979), is often cited as a foundational work of modern Iranian cinema, and in 2002 he was voted the best Persian filmmaker.

Beyzai left Iran in 2010 after accepting an invitation to Stanford University in California, where he became the Daryabari Visiting Professor of Iranian Studies. There, he taught Iranian theatre, cinema and mythology, led workshops on the Shahnameh, and staged new works including Tarabnameh.

Despite living in exile, Beyzai never concealed his attachment to Iran. His wife, actress Mozhdeh Shamsai, said that "the word 'Iran' would bring tears to his eyes", describing him as someone who held on to the hope of a different cultural future for his homeland.