Morteza Avini

Iranian documentary filmmaker, author, and theoretician

Sayyid Morteza Avini (سید مرتضی آوینی; also spelled Aviny; 23 September 1947 – 9 April 1993)

Shahrzad Beheshti, one of Avini's friends during his time at the university, later said that "Avini was a very different person before and after the revolution." After the revolution, Avini gave up writing and burned all his writings with the stated intention of annihilating his "self." Avini chose to participate in the Iranian Revolution by making documentary films, instead of entering politics as many of his colleagues did, and which he was capable of doing. His film making has been described as having an ideological goal. According to Avini, his position was "suspended" between the two institutions, and if not for that, none of the films would have been created.

Reviewer Kamran Rastegar described Avini's work as melding "documentary techniques and ideological aims." His films rarely mention the national identity of the enemies in a battle, and instead explore the actions of young Iranian soldiers in comparison to the actions of historical Shi'a "martyrs." According to Devictor, Avini created an original cinematic approach which was neither strictly realistic nor glorifying. Instead, Avini tried to capture both the visible (military operations) and the esoteric (the inner or moral) aspects of battle. He overlaid these with Shia mystic philosophy, and invited the viewer to develop a personal place within the event. He had his teams stay at the set for long periods of time, taking the time to discover and encounter "the other." He tried to maintain realism by minimizing the use of cinematic effects, and worked to avoid depicting the habits that combatants had adopted when they were being filmed. Avini rarely filmed major victories and was hardly interested in strategy or military issues; his documentaries were almost exclusively devoted to how volunteers (bassijis) viewed the conflict

Ravayat e Fath (Narration of Victory) was a "lifelong" documentary of the Iran–Iraq War which focused on the daily life of Iranian soldiers. It consisted of five series and dealt with the spiritual aspect of the war. It depicted "a lifetime spiritual experience" through its ideological narration.

He wrote a series of articles in Sureh magazine critiquing Western civilization, a subject which was later the focus of his film Sarab (Mirage). At a conference at the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, he said that Western art was a container that could accept any content, and that it was possible to insert religious thought without changing or betraying it. He was dubbed a shahid, or "martyr," after his death.