TEHRAN – French actor Jean-Pierre Léaud who played Antoine Doinel in a series of François Truffaut’s films from the age of 14 to 34 will attend the 36th edition of the Fajr International Film Festival. 

Truffaut cast him in “The 400 Blows” in 1959 and made three more features and a short about the character, who is seen to be a version of the director himself. The series culminated in 1979 in “Love on the Run”, in which Truffaut used scenes from the earlier films as flashbacks.

Léaud became an icon of the French New Wave, and the French-Swiss director Jean-Luc Godard used him in many movies, including “Masculin Féminin” (1966) and “La Chinoise” (1967).

A later generation of directors cast him as well, including Aki Kaurismäki in “I Hired a Contract Killer”, Olivier Assayas in “Irma Vep” and Tsai Ming-liang in “What Time Is It There?”.

A number of famous figures of the world cinema, including Palestinian director Rashid Masharawi, German cinematographer Thomas Mauch and French filmmaker Olivier Megaton, have been invited to attend the Fajr Festival, which will take place in Tehran from April 19 to 27. 

Photo: French actor Jean-Pierre Léaud attends the 2016 Cannes Film Festival.

RM/MMS/YAW