An evening with Dariush Mehrjui at the UCLA (November 9, 2008)       Mehrjui's Derakhte Golabi (The Pear Tree) was screened. This was followed by a long Q&A session. The bulk of the questions focused on Mehrjui's films. But social and political issues were also discussed. Golshifteh Farahani who starred in the movie was the surprise guest and joined Mehrjui during the disscusion.  Watch an excerpt of the program - Real Video (11:34) Dariush Mehrjui is an Iranian director, screenwriter, producer, and film editor. As an Iranian New Wave cinema icon, Mehrjui is regarded to be one of the intellectual directors of Iranian cinema. Most of his films are inspired by literature and adopted based on Iranian and foreign novels and plays. He studied in Cinema and Philosophy at UCLA and graduated in 1964. Mehrjui's prize-wining The Cow in 1969 generally considered to mark the birth of Iranian art cinema, the New Wave. His third feature, Mr. Naive (Agha-ye Haloo) was a box-office hit. His next film, The Postman (Postchi) was a political metaphor based on Karl Buchner's Woyzeck. The Cycle (Dayereh Mina), kept in the shelves for 4 years, turned to be one of Mehrjui s most successful films abroad. His Lodgers (Ejareh Neshinha), one of the best comedies of the Iranian cinema, and Hamoon, the most controversial film of 1990 marked Mehrjui's shift from social issues to a more personal cinema. From 1992, Mehrjui started his female-character films such as Banoo (banned for 7 years) and Sara (an award-winning international hit), Pari, and Leila are among the very well received films at home and abroad. Mehrjui's films have by far received 49 national and international awards. This lecture was part of the Center for Near Eastern Studies Bilingual Lecture Series on Iran.
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