The regret that remained in Ali Nasiryan’s heart
Charso Press: We are so shocked by the heinous murder of Dariush Mehrjooi and his wife, Vahida Mohammadifar, that we cannot help preparing a report and discussion, as is the usual practice of the press when an artist dies, but what follows is a recitation of a part of Ali Nasirian’s statements about cooperation with Dariush Mehrjouyi.
According to ISNA, “Laminor” is the last work of Dariush Mehrjoui. The film that marked his collaboration with Nasiriyan again after 40 years.
The production and release of this film caused Nasirian to narrate part of his past memories and his first collaborations with Mehrjooi in the meetings held for this film.
In the 40s, Nasirian was one of the prominent actors of the theater and a good choice for the Nojooi director who was looking to make films of a different kind.
There was a show on stage that a well-groomed young man came to see, according to Nasiryan, and after the performance, they said he was Dariush Mehrjooi, who was looking for an actor for his film.
This young man, who studied philosophy in America, had a complete mastery of Iranian and world literature, and this is how he made some of the best films of Iranian cinema by adapting or taking from important literary works.
He also had a close friendship with Gholamhossein Saedi, one of the playwrights of our country. So, what better opportunity for Mehrjooi to go for a play of his to make his second film “Cow” and what better opportunity to collaborate with actors who had their roots in the theater and had acted in Saedi’s plays.
One of these actors was Ali Nasiryan, and this is how Mehrjooi and Nasiryan’s first collaboration took place in the movie “Cow”.
About 40 years later, when he collaborated with Mehrjooi for the umpteenth time in the film “Laminoor”, Nasirian reviewed his memories of his first collaborations with this director, parts of which we read together:
“The story of “Cow” was written by Gholamhossein Saedi from the book “Azadaran Bayal”. In 2016, a center called the Department of Dramatic Arts was established and since then we have cooperated with Mr. Saedi. At first, we worked together with a series of plays with a constitutional theme, until one night Mr. Saedi came to us with a handsome young man named Dariush Mehrjooi and said that he wanted to make the movie “Cow”. We got a strange feeling from the excitement and we didn’t know what to do with the happiness.
Of course, we had previously performed theaters on Iranian TV, one of which was the play “Cow”. Mr. Al-Ahmed praised this work a lot. After the movie script was written, we realized that cinema is different from theater. Dariush Mehrjooi took film tests from us and gave us exercises and we practiced the pre-dialogue sequences of the film in the theater office.
This movie was very influential for us. I always said that in “Cow”, Mehrjooi introduced us to being in front of the camera and playing a movie. I learned cinema from him. The subject of depth of field and camera movements and cinema techniques were clarified for us there. The first director and teacher who taught me what to do in front of the camera was Dariush Mehrjooi.
Nasirian also said about Dariush Mehrjooi’s character: “Mehrjoi worked very obsessively.” I recently worked with him and saw that despite his age, he still has his old precision. “Even when we played with the villagers, we worked and practiced many times.”
In May of last year, in the first screening of Laminor, Ham Nasirian wished that his life and Mehrjooi would be enough for another collaboration and said: “It would be very attractive for me to end my life with Mehrjooi.”
In this screening, he praised Dariush Mehrjooi and said: Working with Mr. Mehrjooi has always been extremely interesting for me. After forty years of distance and separation from him, this cooperation was formed. Rich culture and understanding is the basis of a cinematographer’s work. Cinema is not just a technique. Cinema is thought and thought and he was the owner of thought. Since then, working with him has been very attractive for me and this relationship has been very attractive for me, and God willing both he and I will live long enough for this to happen again.
Now Mehrjooi’s life has come to an end and “Laminoor” has become his last collaboration with Nasiriyan.
Special page for Dariush Mehrjooi