Renowned film director Dariush Mehrjui and his wife were stabbed to death at their home near Tehran on October 14th evening, news agency Associated Press reported. According to the official IRNA news agency, Hossein Fazeli, a judiciary official, said that Mehrjhi and his wife, Vahideh Mohammadifar, had knife wounds on their necks.
Fazeli said the director’s daughter, Mona Mehrjui, found the bodies when she went to visit her father. According to the report, authorities were conducting an investigation and have refrained from speculating on a motive.
Weeks before the incident, the wife had reportedly raised concerns about a knife threat on social media.
The BBC, referring to local media, reported that four people have been identified in connection to the deaths.
Renowned Iranian actor Houman Seyyedi expressed his sadness over the ‘terrible and brutal night slaughter’ on social media.
Mehrjui was known as the cofounder of Iran’s film new wave in the early 1970s which mainly focused on realism. He received many awards, including a Silver Hugo from the Chicago International Film Festival in 1998 and a Golden Seashell at the San Sebastián International Film Festival in 1993.
Mehrjui gained recognition both nationally and internationally primarily through his 1969 movie ‘The Cow’, BBC reported, adding that the film depicts the tale of a villager’s fixation with the eponymous animal.
Mehrjui studied in the cinema program at the University of California, Los Angeles in the early 1960s.