Ирандық кино режиссер Абдолхоссейн Сепанта

Iranian film director

Abdolhossein Sepanta (عبدالحسین سپنتا, 4 June 1907 – 28 March 1969) was an Iranian film director and producer. He made the earliest sound films in the Persian language. He was also a writer and journalist and promoter of liberal politics.

Abdolhossein Sepanta was born in the Vagonkhaneh Avenue area in Tehran in 1907. His father, Gholam Reza Khan was the translator of Mozzafar al Din Shah, a King of the Qajar dynasty. Abdolhossein began his studies at the Saint Louis and Zoroastrian Colleges in Tehran circa 1925. He found a keen interest in ancient Persian history and literature. Therefore, in 1927, he chose Sepanta as his surname. In 1927, he traveled to India via Bushehr. There, he became acquainted with Dinshah Irani as his Indian Translator, who was the director of the Persian Zoroastrian Society. After extensive studies in ancient culture, he returned to Iran for a short period. Sepanta soon returned to India again with plans for a lengthier stay. He continued to study ancient Iranian culture and literature. Encouraged by his teachers and professors, Sepanta started his activity in cinema.

As Sepanta took more interest in film, he found that there was a possibility one of his productions could make it to theaters in Iran through some competitive tactics. The leading Iranian films producer at the time was Oganes Oganians, a Russian Armenian immigrant who pioneered the industry in Iran. His silent films were a hit in Iran and were modeled after a series of Danish comedies aired in the previous years. Looking at the advanced technology available in British India, Sepanta realized that he could bring to Iranian cinema the first talkie film. In 1931, with an acquaintance Ardeshir Irani, a parsi from the local community, Sepanta began production of the Lor Girl at the Imperial Film Co. in Bombay. The movie was the first film with people talking in it as well as one of the first productions in a Muslim country to cast a female. The movie was screened in October 1933 in Tehran at two major movie theaters, Mayak Cinema and Sepah Cinema, and was surprisingly a major hit. Contrary to the expectations of cinema managers, who relied on foreign films, The Lor Girl was an instantaneous success and set up a new record of sale and running period which was not beaten for several years. Sepanta wrote the entire script and played the leading male role as well. The story is about Golnar, a village teahouse maid that falls in love with Jafar, a government agent. The two fall in love and escape to India until political tensions in troubled Iran die down. The movie is said to be a subtle political commentary on the lack of general public security during a period when the Pahlavi dynasty is replacing the Qajar dynasty in Iran.

Sepanta's early films were filmed in Bombay with Parsis as organizers and cast of different backgrounds. For some reason, in 1935, Sepanta packed his things and left Bombay for Calcutta to seek out opportunities in the Bengali cinema. This final film, Laili o Majnoon, was based on a full scale dramatic poem by Nizami similar to that of Romeo and Juliet. The Basravi family made many peripherals that added to the script such as detailed information regarding exterior and interior scenes, dialogues, and actors' movements, settings, costumes, lighting, sound effects and camera movements. They also contributed in making explanatory notes on editing and film processing made that are offered and scene descriptions by carefully worked out drawings. Though the other 4 scripts are available, none of them show such detailed workmanship. Due to the changing political climate in Iran, Laili o Majnoon never saw any comparable market success.