Toghrol Afshar was one of the first pioneers of film criticism in Iran and the founder of the first film festival in Iran.

He was one of the few critics of that period who had a correct understanding and idea of ​​the category of cinema. His reviews at that time went beyond writing about the plot of films and providing information about actors.

Biography

Toghrol Afshar was born on April 4, 1933 in Tehran. He was the son of Jalal Afshar, a botanist and researcher and professor at the Faculty of Agriculture, and Behjat-e-Zaman (Soraya) Esfandiyari, the sister of Nima Youshij. After his parents separated, he lived with his mother until her death.

From 1948, Afshar began writing about cinema and film criticism sporadically. At the same time, he also wrote sports reports and articles for the press. His outspoken pen and heartfelt criticisms against vulgarity in cinema made him the first serious cinema critic in the country. He began his film criticism career continuously from the sixth issue of the bi-weekly magazine Peyk Cinema on November 8, 1952, and in April 1955, he published the first film magazine under the name Dar Kamane Rangine Cinema (In the colorful arc of cinema). Afshar was one of the founders of the film festival in Iran.

On August 19, 1956, at the age of twenty-three, Toghrol Afshar drowned while swimming in the Babolsar Sea. He was studying law at the university at the time of his death. His tombstone reads: "Here Toghrol Afshar, the first Iranian film critic, buried his calm and noble soul." Afshar continued to write regularly until his death.

The First Film Festival

According to the available documents, it was Toghrol Afshar who first organized a small festival in 1950, when he was just starting his press career, at the Crystal Cinema on Lalehzar Street in Tehran. Two more festivals were held over the next three years. Before that, only a few film weeks from a specific country had been organized in Iran. On June 26 and 27, 1954, at the same time as the publication of the Peyk Cinema magazine, the fourth film festival was held through his efforts, in which films from nine countries were screened, along with speeches by Houshang Kavoosi and Afshar himself.

This was considered a noteworthy move for the newly-established cinema of that time, whose productions were rudimentary and few, and experimental works relying on trial and error in the field of filmmaking.

Acting in Cinema

In 1953, Afshar starred in Bipanah / The Bereft , a film directed by Gorji Ovadia (Ahmad Fahmi), the only film ever in which Afshar appeared. The film deals with the life of a young man who lost his father in childhood. The young man seduces a girl in the village and runs away to the city. The deceived girl joins the city's corrupt women. The boy gets involved in a criminal affair and ends up in court. The prosecutor convicts him and eventually finds out that the young man is none other than his son.

It seems that Afshar took the initiative to act in this film to get a feel for a film in that decade and to better understand the filmmaking process. He later regretted acting in the film and wrote, disappointed with his work: "I wanted to see and know the corruption and vulgarity behind the Film-Farsi up close."

Collection of film reviews

In his film criticism, he was influenced by the attitude of the Russian revolutionary critic Belinsky and, like him, believed that literature was a means to bridge the gap between intellectuals and the masses and emphasized moral and social points. On October 29, 1953, Toghrol Afshar, along with other critics such as Farhad Forouhi, Houshang Kavoosi, and Mohsen Movahed (author of the Newpaper Ettelaat / Information), signed a statement against some cinema viewers. The statement was issued in condemnation of the behavior of angry viewers who reacted violently and nervously during the screening of Jean Renoir's 1951 film The River in Tehran. The audience's reaction was so severe that it led to the film being confiscated, which prompted film critics and writers to issue a statement protesting this move.

Among Afshar's other activities in the field of film criticism is the publication of the bi-weekly magazine Peyk Cinema. The eleven-issue issue of Pik Cinema in 1955, under the license of Hamid Rahnama and the responsibility of Toghrol Afshar, took a critical look at cinema, especially Film-Farsi cinema, which was taking shape at the time. He also published a book titled Dar Kamane Rangine Cinema (In the colorful arc of cinema) on April 1955, which is a collection of his film reviews.

Afshar wrote in a review in this magazine under the title Cinema in Iran: “So far, more than thirty Persian films have been released on the screen, we have seen nothing but monotonous and aimless subjects, repetitive and boring scenes, the dull acting of the actors and the theatrical movements of the theater actors, the similar scenes of the cabaret and prison, and finally the Iranian dance and singing that have even appeared in dramatic films.”

Unforgettable Letters

Unforgettable Letters is the name of a book published by Toghrol Afshar in May 1956, just three months before his death. This fifty-page book was a collection of two stories written in the style of letters. In the introduction to this book, he writes: "You may wonder how a writer and film critic published such a book, you may wonder how a critic spoke of poetic and romantic feelings. You may also say to yourself that he has taken a step backward... But I want to know if it is not possible to discuss life and social struggles better with the language of love and feeling?"