Abdolhossein Sepenta

This final film, Laili-o-Majnoon, was based on a full-scale dramatic poem by Nizami similar to that of Romeo and Juliet. The Basravi family made many peripherals that added to the script such as detailed information regarding exterior and interior scenes, dialogues, and actors’ movements, settings, costumes, lighting, sound effects and camera movements. They also contributed in making explanatory notes on editing and film processing made that are offered and scene descriptions by carefully worked-out drawings. Though the other 4 scripts are available, none of them show such detailed workmanship. Due to the changing political climate in Iran, Laili-o-Majnoon never saw any comparable market success.

Sepanta died in Esfahan of a heart attack on 28 March 1969.

Finally after 30 years Sepanta took up filmmaking again but not as a professional. He bought an 8 mm Canon camera and made a number of short documentary films between 1967 and 1969. The Autumn, one of his 8 mm films, was presented 2 years after his death at the 26th session of the Free Cinema Workshop in 1971 in Iran.

In 1943 he started publishing his weekly magazine(Sepanta Newspaper). He had difficulty to continuing publishing his magazine because of his ideology and political thought, which holds liberty as the primary political value and seeking a society characterized by freedom of thought on the authority of government. Therefore, he has been forced to close his magazine in 1954. From 1955 he was the Iranian consultant of the United States Aid Program in Esfahan.

“In September 1936, he arrived in Bushehr (a port beside of Persian Gulf) with a print of Laili-o-Majnoon. Due to bureaucratic complications, the film print could not be immediately released to screen, and he had to leave for Tehran without it. Government officials’ attitude was inexplicably hostile from the beginning and he almost was sorry that he returned home. The authorities did not value cinema as an art form or even as a means of mass communication, and he soon realized that he had to forget about his dream of establishing a film studio in Iran. He even had difficulty getting permission to screen his film, and in the end the movie theater owners forced him to turn over the film to them almost for nothing.”

Sepanta's early films were filmed in Bombay with Parsis as organizers and cast of different backgrounds. For some reason, in 1935, Sepanta packed his things and left Bombay for Calcutta to seek out opportunities in the Bengali cinema.

Sepanta's superior films raised the expectations of Iranian movie audiences. In 1934, he made his second film Ferdowsi at the millenary celebrations of the great Persian epic poet Ferdowsi.

Until 1933 and The Lor girl Iran's cinema was not so popular and the few cinemas in Tehran and other major cities just served the aristocracy and some particular classes of the society. Moreover, Iranian filmmakers had no clear line of thought. With the exception of Sepanta, who used the elements of Iran's ancient literature in his works, other filmmakers would mostly imitate foreign movies.

Looking at the advanced technology available in British India, Sepanta realized that he could bring to Iranian cinema the first talkie film. In 1931, with an acquaintance Ardeshir Irani, a parsi from the local community, Sepanta began production of the Lor Girl at the Imperial Film Co. in Bombay. The movie was the first film with people talking in it as well as one of the first productions in a Muslim country to cast a female. The movie was screened in October 1933 in Tehran at two major movie theaters, Mayak Cinema and Sepah Cinema, and was surprisingly a major hit. Contrary to the expectations of cinema managers, who relied on foreign films, The Lor Girl was an instantaneous success and set up a new record of sale and running period which was not beaten for several years.

In the 1930s, there were nine talkie films produced from 1931-1937. Of these nine, five are Sepanta's films. He's considered by many to be the Leader of that era, when films were mainly political documentaries and films for entertainment were disliked by the ruling dynasty.

Abdolhossein began his studies at the Saint Louis and Zoroastrian Colleges in Tehran circa 1925. He found a keen interest in ancient Persian history and literature. Therefore, in 1927, he chose Sepanta as his surname. In 1927, he traveled to India via Bushehr. There, he became acquainted with Dinshah Irani as his Indian Translator, who was the director of the Persian Zoroastrian Society. After extensive studies in ancient culture, he returned to Iran for a short period.

Abdolhossein Sepanta (Persian: عبدالحسین سپنتا ‎) (June 4, 1907 – March 28, 1969) was a noted Iranian film director and producer. He made the earliest sound films in the Persian language. He was also a writer and journalist and promoter of liberal politics.

Abdolhossein Sepenta was born in 1901 in Isfahan, Iran.