Shahla Riahi, first female director of Iranian cinema
Shahla Riahi, was the veteran actress and the first female filmmaker in the history of Iran cinema.
Riahi (1927-2019) started stage acting in 1944. In 1956, she became the first Iranian woman to direct a feature film ‘Marjan’. She has acted in over 120 films, plays and TV series.
Before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, there were only a couple of female filmmakers in Iran and Riahi did a great job to direct a movie in the male-dominated film domain.
‘Marjan’, the 110-minute 35mm, black-and-white film was produced by Arya Film.
In 2015, Riahi was honored in a ceremony at Charsou Cineplex in Tehran which was organized by another renowned female film director and actress Niki Karimi who said, “I congratulate her for being the first woman in Iran who made a film almost 60 years ago. She was really courageous in doing so and paved the way for people like me to continue the path”.
‘Marjan’, was about a group of gypsies who settle near a village. Squeezed by pressures of life, a man from the gypsies steals a sheep from the village. The young teacher of the village traps the man, locking him up in a schoolroom. Marjan, the daughter of the man, goes to the school to visit her father and the teacher falls in love with the girl.
Riahi began her acting career at the age of 17 by a suggestion from her husband, Esmaeil Riahi, a stage director and screenwriter.Her brilliant performance as the leading actress in director Moezzeddivan Fekri’s play ‘Harun al-Rashid’s Policy’ presented her as a young, promising talent.