Bahram Beyzaie, a renowned Iranian filmmaker, playwright, and scholar, died at 87 from cancer complications. He passed away on December 26, 2025—his birthday—while serving as a visiting professor at Stanford University in California since 2010. Beyzaie pioneered the Iranian New Wave and profoundly shaped cinema, theater, and Persian literature through explorations of identity, mythology, and cultural heritage.
Bashu Triumphs Globally
Beyzaie created his masterpiece, Bashu, the Little Stranger (1986, released 1989), which portrays a war-orphaned boy who bonds with a northern Iranian woman despite language and cultural divides. The film captured the Venice Classics award for best restored film at the 2025 Venice Film Festival, affirming its worldwide resonance. Critics voted it the greatest Iranian film ever in 1999, highlighting Beyzaie’s focus on human ties amid the Iran-Iraq War.
Expansive Career Achievements
Beyzaie directed eight features, including Stranger and the Fog (1974), Ballad of Tara (1979), and Killing Mad Dogs (2001), while penning plays and scholarly texts on myths like the Shahnameh. Iran’s 1981 Cultural Revolution expelled him from university, yet he persisted in screenwriting and theater, staging epics such as the nine-hour Tarabnameh at Stanford. His intellectual legacy inspired generations, with two-time Oscar winner Asghar Farhadi naming him his “great teacher.”
Enduring Tributes
Stanford’s Iranian Studies Program hailed Beyzaie as a “colossus” of Iranian arts and announced a memorial. Artists praised his refusal to return to Iran amid censorship, cementing his role as a cultural patriot in exile. His passing on Iran’s Playwrights’ Day—tied to his birthday—closes a storied chapter in storytelling.
