Saeed Faraji’s new documentary “Mirza Javad” about the advent of photography in Iran is to be premiered at Cinema Museum in Tehran on Monday in a ceremony to be attended by the film crew.
Mohammad Shah Qajar (1808-1848), his family and his courtiers were the first to pose for a camera in Iran. The photo was taken in December of 1842 by the Russian diplomat Nicolai Pavlov.
Later Mohammad Shah’s son, Nasser al-Din Shah (1831-1896) took special interest in photography, an interest that resulted in many buildings and events in the country being pictured during his rule, most of which are now preserved in the splendid Golestan Palace in south Tehran.
However, according to the public relations office of House of Documentary, Faraji’s 25-minute film centers mainly on a photographer whose name was Mirza Javad who took numerous photos of famous figures of the time, ISNA reported on its Persian website.
Faraji intends to makes two or three sequels for the documentary including photography during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war as well as photography before and after the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
Faraji has directed six other documentaries, including “A Journey to Mogadishu” that portrays the famine-stricken people in the capital city of Sumali; “Story of Samir,” about a Lebanese who has spent 29 years in captivity in Palestine; and “Pride of a Nation” that is about a Bangladeshi photographer.
