The 83-year-old Dariush Mehrjui and his wife, Vahideh Mohammadifar, were discovered with stab wounds in their house in Tehran on Saturday evening, according to Iranian officials, says bbc.com.
Mehrjui is regarded as one of the forefathers of Iranian new-wave cinema. According to local media sources, four people have been identified as being involved in the deaths.
Mehrjui had invited his daughter to dinner at his home in Karaj on Saturday night, according to chief justice Hossein Fazeli.
When she arrived, she is believed to have discovered her parents’ bodies. Mohammadifar, a screenwriter and costume designer, allegedly said recently that she had been intimidated and her home had been broken into.
Houman Seyedi, an Iranian actor and director, was among many who turned to social media to condemn the executions, calling them “terrible and brutal.”
Mehrjui, who studied in the United States as a young man and then resided in France for five years, initially gained national and worldwide attention with his 1969 film ‘The Cow,’ which depicts a villager’s fascination with the titular animal.
His other significant films include ‘Hamoun,’ ‘The Pear Tree,’ and ‘Leila,’ about an infertile woman who encourages her husband to remarry.
Although the new wave movement was primarily concerned with realism, Mehrjui was known to draw inspiration from literature.
He garnered numerous accolades over the years, but while his works were lauded at foreign film festivals, some were never shown in Iran due to censorship.
