TEHRAN – Dariush Mehrjui, the director of the acclaimed movies such as “The Cow”, “Mr. Simpleton” and “The Cycle”, was honored with a lifetime achievement award at the Iran Cinema Celebration on Friday.

The award ceremony began with a tribute to actor Ezzatollah Entezami and director Ziaeddin Dorri, both of whom died last week.

Afterwards, actor Ali Nasirian who is also the director of the celebration this year and co-star with Entezami in “The Cow”, said they were introduced to the Iranian cinema by Mehrjui.

“He gave us the chance to act in the four acclaimed movies in Iran before the revolution and I am proud of ‘The Cow’, ‘Mr. Simpleton’, ‘The Cycle’ and ‘The Postman’,” he noted.

Mehrjui thanked Nasirian when he appeared on the stage to receive his award.

“The review of Iran’s past cinema is a good thing as cinema at present in Iran is suffering from a lack of quality,” he said and thanked the organizers for a postponement of the celebration over Entezami’s death.

Actor Dariush Asadzadeh and voice actor Abolhassan Tahaminejad were also honored with lifetime achievement awards.

In addition, writer Seyyed Mehdi Shojaei received the Seifollah Daad Lifetime Achievement Award for his lifelong contribution to Iranian art and culture.

In a short speech, the writer of “Democracy or Demo Crazy” and “In the Twinkling of an Eye” warned of the severe social crisis facing Iran.

“This is the outcome of our people’s ignorance,” he said and added that populist politicians are born of an uneducated society.

He asked writers and cultured people to help increase knowledge among the Iranian people and said this is the only way to save the society. 

The honoring ceremony is a prelude to the main part of the Iran Cinema Celebration that the Iranian House of Cinema organizes every year to commemorate Iran’s National Day of Cinema, which falls on September 12 this year.

Photo: Director Dariush Mehrjui accepts an award for his lifetime achievements during at the Iran Cinema Celebration at the Iranian House of Cinema in Tehran on August 24, 2018. (Fars/Armin Karami)

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