TEHRAN: One of Iran’s most prominent film-makers, Dariush Mehrjui, was stabbed to death on Saturday evening alongside his wife at their home near Tehran.

A provincial chief justice said Mehrjui and his wife, Vahideh Mohammadifar, “were killed by multiple stab wounds to the neck”, the judiciary’s Mizan Online website said.

According to Hossein Fazeli-Harikandi, chief justice of Alborz province near Tehran, Mehrjui sent a text message to his daughter, Mona, at about 9pm local time inviting her for dinner at their home in Karaj, west of Tehran. But upon her arrival an hour and a half later, she found the bodies of her dead parents with fatal wounds to their necks.

Later in the day, police said “no signs of forced entry can be seen at the crime scene”, adding that “no damage has been done to the doors” of their home. However, they said “traces have been found” at the scene they believe to be “related to the murderer”. On Sunday, the Etemad newspaper included an interview with the film-maker’s wife saying she had been threatened and that their home had been burgled.

“The investigation revealed that no complaints had been filed regarding the illegal entry into the Mehrjui’s family villa and the theft of their belongings”, said Fazeli-Harikandi. In a statement, Iran’s minister of culture, Mohammad-Mehdi Esmaili, hailed Mehrjui as “one of the pioneers of Iranian cinema” and “the creator of eternal works”.

Published in Dawn, October 16th, 2023