TEHRAN – Kiumars Purahmad, director of the popular Iranian TV series “The Stories of Majid”, ended his life at his home in Bandar Anzali on Wednesday. He was 74.

Filme Emrooz, a Persian magazine, said that Purahmad killed himself “over depression, disappointment, pessimism about the future and vanity.”

However, Ali Qaemmaqami, producer of his latest film “The Case Is Open”, told Tasnim that Purahmad passed away from heart failure.   

The celebrated director was best known for “The Stories of Majid”, a TV series he directed in the early 1990s based on bestselling writer Hushang Moradi Kermani’s book of the same name.

The series tells the story of an ambitious teenage boy, Majid, who lives with his grandma Bibi in the central Iranian city of Isfahan.

Bibi was portrayed by Parvindokht Yazdanian, Purahmad’s mother, who also played roles in several of his movies including “Yalda Night” and “Morning of the Next Day”.  

“She always played all her roles well,” Purahmad said in 2012 in a memorial service for his mother.

“She was an ordinary woman and could find her place in people’s hearts easily,” said the director who was one of her 12 children.
 
“Yalda Night”, also known as “The Longest Night”, was inspired by an episode of Purahmad’s life story. 

In this film, Hamed is unemployed. Meanwhile, his wife and daughter immigrate to Europe for a better future. Missing his family, he imprisons himself and starts to revise his life in isolation.

Born in Najafabad, a small town in Isfahan Province, Purahma moved Tehran, working as a writer and critic in Film, a leading monthly magazine.

Then, he worked as an assistant director with director and writer Nader Ebrahimi in the TV series “Fire without Smoke” in the early 1970s.

He wrote and directed about 30 movies such as “Bibi Chelcheleh”, “Next Morning”, “Bread and Poem” and “Night Bus”.

His latest movie, “The Case Is Open”, premiered at the Fajr Film Festival in February.

He wrote his autobiography “The Unfinished Childhood”, which was published by Elm in 2001.

Photo: This file photo shows director Kiumars Purahmad attending a press conference for his film “Blade and Termeh” during the 37th Fajr Film Festival at Tehran’s Mellat Cineplex on January 31, 2019. (Mehr/Maryam Kamyab)

MMS/YAW