Sam Kalantari, Mohsen ShahrnazdarIran 2010 / 68 min
Fifty years has passed since the death of Sadegh Hedayat, the famous Iranian author and first novelist. During these years numerous questions have been raised regarding his life and characteristics which distinguish him from others and gives him a unique place among Iranian and worldwide novel literature which have remained unanswered. His works have been translated into many languages and “The Blind Owl” is considered among the 10 most important world surrealist literature works. In the end Hedayat’s suicide in Paris made his life ambiguous and added to the questions of several generations regarding his life. But beyond these informative sentences, the importance of Hedayat is in his constant presence in the contemporary history of Iran as “Hedayat’s legend”.
This film has a profound and compelling look at his life from his childhood in Iran, his life in France until his suicide in Paris in the form of dialogues by presenting documents and photos. Even if you do not know Hedayat and are not interested in Iran’s literature, his Kafka-like characteristic in the film will absorb you for 68 minutes.
BIOGRAPHY & FILMOGRAPHY of Sam Kalantari
Was born in 1976. He graduated as a Construction Engineer. He was in Dublin, Ireland where he was studying Cinema for a while. Kalantari has been active as a Project Executive, a Producer and a Director who has been successful in local and international festivals. He has directed several campaigning films, planned features and TV series and directed more than ten documentaries and short films.
“Unknown Desire” Fiction 11min 2000-01
“This Woman Will Talk” Documentary 30min 2002-03
“Somewhere Close By” Fiction 24min 2003
“My Heart is Full of Doll” Documentary 34min 2005-06
BIOGRAPHY of Mohsen Shahrnazdar
Was born in 1977. Shahrnazdar is a journalist and a music researcher and graduated with a B.A in anthropology. He has done research in the field of Iranian tribal music and also Iranian contemporary intellectuals. Since 1995 he has written critiques on music in the newspapers and is among the first serious critics of music in the 1990s. During these years he continued his research on music anthropology and the portrait genre in documentary films. He has published four volumes of “About Iran’s Music” and has several other books which are in the process of being published.
Beside music, Shahrnazdar is writing about Iranian music entries in several Persian encyclopaedias; he is the director of “Voice and Music” section of the website of Anthropology, and continues his activities in the documentary domain in the field of contemporary history and folklore. “From House No. 37” is his first documentary as a director.
