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Profound tributes are pouring in for Bahram Beyzai, a giant of Persian film and stage, who has died aged 87 in the US.

Homeland in Mourning

The front pages of Iranian newspapers mourn his loss, with dissenting figures and those who reflect nostalgically on the Shah era also offering their respects to Beyzai.

"His passing is a great loss for the cultural heritage of our country," remarked the exiled prince, the exiled son of the last Shah of Iran.

Although Beyzai's subsequent works were banned in the 1980s by the Islamic regime, a host of senior figures in the present administration have also acknowledged his contribution to Persian arts.

A Mentor to Filmmakers

Several of the contemporary generation of Persian directors have expressed their gratitude to him. Jaafar Panahi noted that Beyzai showed them "the way to resist oblivion."

Beyzai avoided overtly political content in his work, both as a dramatist and a cinematic auteur, and always maintained he tried not to trade in overt messages.

But his work over many decades places archetypal characters in conflict with authoritarian structures of power.

Roots in Tradition

Hailing from a lineage of renowned poets, Beyzai was imbued in the deepest traditions of Iranian artistry from birth.

He first found fame as a playwright, inspired by Persian legend and ritual.

A lifelong fan of cinema, he transitioned to making films in the 1970s.

He gained acclaim as one of the key figures in the groundbreaking movement of Iranian cinema.

Navigating Censorship

His most fruitful era straddled the time of the Shah and then the Islamic theocratic forces that overthrew him—with each regime ever ready to sniff out hidden messages that could be seen as dissent.

"Beyzai never opted for the easy way. He withstood years of exclusion, imposed silence, and exile, but he did not give up his language and his convictions," stated Jaafar Panahi in his tribute.

The Little Stranger

A few years after the 1979 Revolution, he produced what many regard as his masterpiece, Bashu, the Little Stranger, about a young child who tries to take refuge from the devastating conflict.

It was censored in Iran—as were other films he made in that time—but later voted by film critics as the best Iranian film of all time.

The film was screened in a restored version at this year's Venice Film Festival, receiving an award for outstanding feature in the classics section.

A Hopeful Exile

Beyzai finally left Iran in 2010 and lived out his final days in the US, where he taught Iranian culture.

Even after he went into exile, his wife, the actress Mozhdeh Shamsai, said just the sound of the word "Iran" would still make him emotional—and he continued to hope for a new culture and future for his homeland.