Prominent Iranian film director Dariush Mehrjui and his wife, Vahideh Mohammadi Far (photo), a screenwriter and costume designer (photo), were gruesomely murdered in their home October 14. Alborz provincial chief justice Hossein Fazeli-Harikandi said the couple were discovered dead with knife wounds in their necks. Other reports said their throats were slit, that they had been badly beaten and perhaps tortured before they died. Four suspects were swiftly arrested all of them Afghans, which has added to the animosity against Afghans and one of them, the Mehrjuis’ gardener, has been charged. Mehrjui, 83, was known as a cofounder of Iran’s film new wave in the early 1970s that mainly focused on realism. He has made The Cow (1969), Mr. Naive (1970), The Postman (1971), Hamoun (1990), The Lady (1991), Sara (1993), Pari (1995), Leila (1996), The Pear Tree (1998), Mum’s Guest (2004) and Santouri (2007). Mehrjui, 83, attended the film program at the University of California, Los Angeles, and graduated in 1964.
