TEHRAN – The Cinéma Vérité festival has paid homage to Nader Talebzadeh, a renowned filmmaker and producer of revolutionary TV programs and official events who died in April.

The tribute ceremony opened at Tehran Mellat Cineplex Monday evening with a speech by Mohammad Hamidi-Moqaddam, the president of the international documentary film festival.

“As the president of the festival, we have the honor of organizing this tribute and this is the least we can do,” he said.

He also praised Talebzadeh’s character and noted, “He never cared for the judgment about what he did and was always honest.”

Referring to his choice as a critic to talk about Oliver Stone’s trilogy about Vietnam in “Cinema One”, a program produced on Channel 1 of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, he said, “Oliver Stone was very happy about the choice. When he visited Iran he didn’t want to talk with anyone; he said, ‘I only want to talk with Nader Talebzadeh’.”    

“He was always hopeful and wanted us to help young filmmakers, therefore we should learn from him. He belonged to all the Iranian people with a variety of thoughts and everybody loved him,” he said.

Emad Hamrouni, a Paris-based Tunisian expert on politics, also delivered a short speech.

He said that he met Talebzadeh in Tehran during the New Horizon Conference that he launched to invite figures from across the world who stand in opposition to U.S. policies.

He called Talebzadeh a grand master of politics, communication and resistance issues and praised him for bringing renowned experts from across the world together at the conference to discuss Zionism and other global issues. 

Talebzadeh’s daughter, Maryam, also attended the tribute ceremony.

“I thank my father for showing me a good outlook on life. He never dictated what I can do; he let me criticize, sometimes with dialogue and sometimes with silence, but he never made any attempt to silence me. Whenever he was disappointed in me, he would tell me, ‘You’ve only lost your way’,” she said.

“He even told me that you need to move into the darkness to find the light. He was a perfect gentleman… I ask all his disciples to take care that the seeds he planted do not change into weeds,” she noted.      

Talebzadeh died at the age of 69 on account of chronic heart disease. 

A filmmaking graduate of Columbia University in New York City, he was the president of the Ammar Popular Film Festival, which he co-founded along with several Iranian revolutionary figures.

He also was a co-founder of Ofoq, IRIB’s channel for documentary cinema, and worked as a host and TV producer presenting programs on political issues, media and films.

Talebzadeh once said on a TV program that he had survived an act of “biological terrorism” attempt during the Arbaeen gathering in 2016. He said that his suitcase was confiscated by some armed men in Najaf. The suitcase was sent back to him in Karbala a few days later, but after handling it, he began to suffer from asthma and continued to suffer from insomnia.

Photo: Filmmaker Nader Talebzadeh’s daughter, Maryam, speaks during a tribute the Cinéma Vérité festival paid to her father at Tehran’s Mellat Cineplex on December 12, 2022. (Mehr/Arshideh Shahangi)

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