Movies - Abdolhossein Sepanta

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	Movies - Abdolhossein Sepanta

Abdolhossein Sepanta (June 4, 1907 – March 28, 1969 ) was a noted iranian film director and producer . He was born in Tehran ,Iran, and died of a heart attack in Esfahan , Iran .

Biography

Early Years

Abdolhossein Sepanta was born in the Vagonkhaneh Avenue area in Tehran in 1907. His father, Gholam Reza Khan was the translator of Mozzafar-al-Din Shah, a King of the Qajar dynasty.

Abdolhossein began his studies at the Saint Louis and Zoroastrian Colleges in Tehran circa 1925. He found a keen interest in Ancient Iranian History and literature. Therefore in 1927, he chose Sepanta as his surname. In 1927, he traveled to India via Bushehr . There, he became acquainted with Dinshah Irani as his Indian Translator, who was the director of the Iranian Zoroastrian Society. After extensive studies in ancient culture, he returned to Iran for a short period.

Sepanta soon returned to India again with plans for a lengthier stay. He continued to study ancient Iranian culture and literature. Encouraged by his teachers and professors, Sepanta started his activity in cinema.

"The Lor Girl"

As Sepanta took more interest in film, he found that there was a possibility one of his productions could make it to theaters in Iran through some competitive tactics. The leading Iranian films producer at the time was Oganes Oganians, a Russian Armenian immigrant who pioneered the industry in Iran. His silent films were a hit in Iran and were modeled after a series of Danish comedies aired in the previous years.

Looking at the advanced technology available in British India, Sepanta realized that he could bring to Iranian cinema the first talkie film. In 1931, with an acquaintance Ardeshir Irani, a parsi from the local community, Sepanta began production of the Lor Girl at the Imperial Film Co. in Bombay. The movie was the first film with people talking in it as well as one of the first productions in a Muslim country to cast a female. The movie was screened in October 1933 in Tehran at two major movie theaters, Mayak and Sepah, and was surprisingly a major hit. Contrary to the expectations of cinema managers, who relied on foreign films, The Lor Girl was an instantaneous success and set up a new record of sale and running period which was not beaten for several years.

Sepanta wrote the entire script and played the leading male role as well. The story is about Golnar, a village teahouse maid that falls in love with Jafar, a government agent. The two fall in love and escape to India until political tensions in troubled Iran die down. The movie is said to be a subtle political commentary on the lack of general public security during a period when the Pahlavi dynasty is replacing the Qajar dynasty in Iran.

The Leader of Early Iranian Cinema

In the 1930's, there were nine talkie films produced from 1931-1937. Of these nine, five are Sepanta's films. He's considered by many to be the Leader of that era, when films were mainly political documentaries and films for entertainment were disliked by the ruling dynasty.

He was director, screenwriter , and many times, the lead role of his films. These were The Lor Girl (1931), Ferdowsi, Shirin-o-Farhaad ,Black Eyes, and Laili-o-Majnoon,which were produced in India.

Sepanta was a man of letters and a prominent scholar in pre-Islamic persian literature, therefore his films were extremely national and historical, a trend which prevailed in other artistic and literary circles at the time and was the outcome of the suppressed but restless social and cultural situation in the society.

Concerning his motives in making A Lor Girl Sepanta explains later:

“As it was the first Iranian sound film to be presented abroad I felt it should present a bright picture of Iran... I have to admit that the film was a great boost for the nationalistic pride of expatriate Iranians.”

It is to be noted, until 1933 and The Lor girl Iran’s cinema was not so popular and the few cinemas in Tehran and other major cities just served the aristocracy and some particular classes of the society. Moreover, Iranian filmmakers had no clear line of thought. With the exception of Sepanta, who used the elements of Iran’s ancient literature in his works, other filmmakers would mostly imited foreign movies.

Sepanta's superior films raised the expectation of Iranian movie audience. In 1934, he made his second film Ferdowsi at the millenary celebrations of the great Persian epic poet Ferdowsi.

Sepanta’s third film Shirin-o-Farhaad was based on a romantic story from Nezami dramatic poetry. The film was shot in India in four months and was screened towards the end of 1934. Sepanta directed his fourth film, The Black Eyes, and screened it in Tehran for four weeks. In 1936, Sepanta made his final commercial film, Laili-o-Majnoon.

Between 1930 and 1936 the Iranian film industry was shut down and it was Sepanta alone who continued his activities and produced his films and kept the market live and busy.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Abdolhossein Sepanta ]

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