Funeral ceremony held for Talebzadeh

Funeral ceremony of veteran Iranian filmmaker Nader Talebzadeh has been held on Saturday.

Renowned Iranian documentary filmmaker and anchor of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) Nader Talebzadeh passed away at the age of 69.

He was admitted to a Tehran hospital last week on account of chronic heart disease, and ultimately died on Friday evening due to heart malfunction and blood clotting.

Talebzadeh was a renowned filmmaker and TV producer who became famous as a symbol of revolutionary programs over the past two decades.

He was the president of the Ammar Popular Film Festival, which he co-founded along with several Iranian revolutionary figures.

He also was a co-founder of Ofoq, IRIB’s channel for documentary cinema, and worked as a host and TV producer presenting programs on political issues, media and films.

He was born into a military family whose father was a high-ranking officer before the Islamic Revolution in Iran.

After finishing his high school education he left Iran to study English literature in the US and received a degree in filmmaking at Columbia University in New York.

After the victory of the Islamic Revolution in 1979, he returned to Iran and started his film career with IRIB.

In the early days of the 1980-1988 Iraq-Iran war, he joined the Iranian troops on the frontlines to make documentaries for IRIB.

He also worked with Morteza Avini, a top filmmaker who was famous for his documentaries on the war.

As a documentarian, he also went to the 1990s Balkan Wars, and his films are preserved in IRIB’s archives.

In 2007, he made his debut feature film ‘The Messiah’, which portrays the story of Jesus Christ as told from an Islamic perspective.

He also launched the New Horizon Conference, inviting figures from across the world who stand in opposition to the US policies.

Talebzadeh’s death came as a shock, triggering a flood of messages of condolences from Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, Iranian President Seyyed Ebrahim Raisi, as well as his friends and officials.

MG/MG