Prince Ehtejab | Shazdeh Ehtejab (1974)

Synopsis

Based on a famous novel by the late Houshang Golshiri the film is about the last of a Ghajar Dynasty, but in reality was a very strong indictment of monarchy.

When the film won the Best Film prize at the Third International Film Festival of Tehran the passage of getting a release permit was made easier, although still the scissors of censorship took about five minutes out of the film.



Dying of hereditary tuberculosis, Prince Ehtejab (Jamshid Mashayekhi) shuts himself up in his palace, where he is assailed by the memories and guilt of his family's cruel deeds.

Members of his household cannot understand why he lacks the brutality of his ancestors. Then he is visited by the ghost of his father and grandfather, who chide him for not continuing their despotic dynasty.

Cast: Jamshid Mashayekhi, Fakhri Khorvash, Nuri Kasraei, Vali Shirandami, Hossein Kasbian, Parvin Soleimani, F.Behjat Mohamadi, Annik Shefrazian, Mehri Mehrnia, Mehri Vadadian, Shadi, Maliheh Nikjoomand, Mansour Koushan, Vahid Khansari, Shahla Pourdel, Ahmad Khansari, Mohammad Ali Miandar


With Fakhri Khorvash. Grand Prix winner,
Teheran International Film Festival.

Based on the classic novel by Houshang Golshiri about the Qajar dynasty, which ruled Persia from 1795-1925, Farmanara's film is "as beautiful as it is tragic" (Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times).

Bahman Farmanara's first film, Prince Ehtejab, is somewhat reminiscent of Satyajit Ray's The Music Room as it observes the declining days of a wealthy man, living in a painful solitude in his mansion.

Knowing that he must soon die, the Prince recalls the extravagant regimes of both his father and grandfather, who were directly related to the Qajars, the former royal family of Iran.

Farmanara shows how each generation has taken cruelty a step forward, from the crude anger of the grandfather to the ruthless psychological torture inflicted on his wife by the Prince himself.

The dialogue is full of pretty ironies, the compositions are arresting, and the atmosphere of the old house is perfectly conveyed.

Farmanara deservedly won the Grand Prix at the Tehran International Film Festival of 1974 for Prince Ehtejab and the film's closing shot, of the doomed man slowly descending a spiral staircase into the dark bowels of his mansion, is hard to forget.

Read about this film

Country: Iran
Language: Farsi
Color: Black & White
Runtime: 93 min.