born in Tabriz in 1923. He became known as “Iran’s Hitchcock” and “The Master of Iranian Horror Movie” by the late 1950s. He was one of the most celebrated commercial film producers who made numerous best-selling action and thriller films in a span of 30 years (from A Girl from Shiraz in 1954 to Eagles in 1985). In order to advertise his second film, A Girl from Shiraz, he made the first film trailer in Iran by using daily raw footages of the film, known as “film rushes” in Iran. The trailer started with a montage of vibrant rushes, introducing the protagonists. The subsequent part had a mellow tone followed by another fast-paced segment to preserve the sense of anticipation in the spectator’s mind. His trailer stylistics were imitated by Iranian directors for many years thereafter.
In Crossroad of Events (1955), Khachikian set the main framework for making his Tehran Noirs. His camera is mobile, and at times, restless. Like American Noir movies of the time, the “impression of night-time photography with high-contrast lighting, occasional low-key lighting, deep shadows and oblique angles” (Hayward 2006, 149) create a sense of anxiety and thrill. The film opens in a busy crossroad, showcasing Tehran’s urban ambience. The main character, played by the charismatic Naser Malek Motiei, is shown crossing the road. The voice-over talks about life’s crossroads. The camera becomes more focused on the main character, implying that the audience is about to see just one life story among many, concurrently happening in Tehran. The call of prayers (Azan) is heard in the background. A subsequent scene of Tehran’s busy life is adorned with the sound of church bells, and another one with the sound of an Orthodox church choir. Modernized Tehran, with new and old buildings, is pictured as a place where multiple faith believers live side by side. Khachikian employed elements of Muslim Persian culture infused with Christian minority culture in a story that is narrated by using the aesthetic rudiments of German Expressionism and American Film Noir. The film is truly a crossroads between multiple aesthetic, artistic, and cultural sensibilities.
In her debut performance, Vida Ghahremani plays the role of a young woman who has to forsake love for her family’s economic concerns. Her performance recalls the stylistics of method acting. Her role is not substantial but her artistic performance documents one of the best performances of the 1950s national cinema. Her acting and her looks recall an Anna Karenina-like character. Technically speaking, Crossroad of Events had deficiencies, as admitted by the director as well. The dialogue is at times deductive and tedious. The dubbing was not done professionally, either. They had to change a few parts of the narrative, since Malek Motiei had to join the mandatory military service (Omid 1996, 263–264). On the other hand, the editing of the film—done by the director himself—is masterful. Like most of his later films, he used western and Iranian music scores. The musical scores by the female singer Elaheh (mentioned as “unknown”) and the Armenian male singer Vigen added to the charm of the melodrama. This melodramatic thriller was screened in multiple theaters in Tehran for 66 nights in a row (Omid 1996, 264). However, Diana Studio did not make any profit. Nonetheless, Khachikian became known as a director who could make technically sound movies in the genres he loved deeply, Horror Film and Film Noir.
In his subsequent movies, such as Storm in Our Town (1958), and The Strike (1964), Khachikian developed his Noir stylistics. Storm in Our Town focuses on an ensemble of characters, including a madman, a rich pervert, a chivalric young man who works in a print shop, a naïve girl, and a homeless mother and her son. In making the film, Khachikian faced difficulties including lack of sufficient raw film and the lead actor’s (Daneshvar as Saeed) travel to Europe. The end result, in Houshang Kavousi’s words, was a film that “lacked narrative unity, continuity, and proper cinematic rhythm” (quoted in Omid 1996, 303). Faced by such problems, the director had to shift between different genres of semi-documentary, melodrama, musical, horror, fantasy, and Sci-Fi. In each segment, one of the characters becomes the lead figure. Storm in Our Town is a film that harbors mini narratives, each emerging out of the previous story, recalling the “Matryoshka Doll” structure of the stories of One Thousand and One Nights. The overall unity of the film seems to be its loyalty to the Noir elements of the film.
The semi-documentary shots at the beginning of the film shows Pari (played by Vida Ghahremani) and her friends in modern Tehran streets. They carefreely march in the urban space, enjoying their time. There is a sense of bliss and vitality in this sequence. It embodies the positive aspects of a modernized culture. Men and women are liberally interacting in the urban space. A mobile camera that rehearses the observational style of cinéma verité, displays attractive shops and cafés, ready to serve people. Soon after, the city space becomes a threatening space for characters, especially for women. Khachikian was a meticulous observer of cultures, traditions, and the process of modernization in Iran. He depicts the positive and negative aspects of urban life. His point of view toward religion and spirituality remains respectful. Intellectual film critics such as Kavousi and Karim Emami distained Khachikian’s “mishmash” horror film. The director was equally dissatisfied with the end result, but filmgoers loved it. The first production of Azhir Studio, which was founded by Khachikian and Josef Vaezian, became a box office success.
In films such as Anxiety (1962) and The Strike (1964), Khachikian continued to represent the modern urban lives of the elite Tehrani society, as well as the middle-class and working-class. His camera projects an honest and realistic view of human nature, zooming into the darker depths of our psyche, so to speak; at times exaggerated for theatrical purposes. His contribution to the public aesthetic values of Iranian cinema was creating the distinctive genre of Tehran Noir, where tradition and modernity, as well as mainstream and marginal cultures cohabit one narrative space. He mastered horror film sensibilities within a quintessential Iranian cinema, introduced female agency, and made the idea of happy endings not too far-fetched in Iranian stories. This last element, i.e., the happy ending, is a missing element in the “more serious” art-house cinema that followed Khachikian’s stylistics. Film critics of the time did not take his entertaining cinema seriously, but an overall analysis of Khachikian’s portfolio affirms that he was the first Iranian auteur, an auteur who understood cinematic form and genre. The generic stylistics that he employed were already defined by American and European cinemas, yet he put his signature on his distinctive Noir by infusing elements of Iranian folkloric stories into his narrative. He displayed the cultural contradictions of Iranian society. Khachikian was a script writer, editor, music composer, a master of visual and sound editing, and a director who would attend shootings with a pre-arranged decoupage. He was an auteur who did not pursue intellectual art-house aspirations. Instead, he successfully made well-written and well-structured genre films for the masses. His Tehran Noir stylistics were refined in the films that he made in the 1960s. He introduced several young talents to cinema and made them stars, such as: Malek Motiei, Vida Ghahremani, Fardin, Arman, Faranak Mirghahari, Jamshid Hashempour, Jalal Pishvaian, and Reza Rooygari. His films fortified the stardom system in Iranian cinema, but his name alone was enough reason for filmgoers to go to his latest film.
The genre of Tehran Noir lost its appeal to an emerging dance and action film aesthetic that did not attend to fine cinematic techniques. B-Grade filmfarsi movies conquered the box-office in the mid to late 1960s. Watching filmfarsi movies that encompassed genres such as Jaheli/Tough Guy Movies, comedies, and Abgushti/Meat Stew Movies continued to be Iranian cinema’s escapist formula. They are for local box office consumption, not meant to be showcased in any national or international film festivals.
Both the form-oriented, auteur-based thrillers of Khachikian, and the formless filmfarsis of the 1960s were common in their lack of interest in politics. Iranians experienced failure in nationalizing oil, the fall of the democratically elected government of Dr. Mossadegh, and an American-led coup d’etat in 1953. A democratic era in Iranian politics ended in 1953, followed by a period of authoritarian governance. Under these conditions, movies were primarily focused on entertaining mass audiences until late 1960s.
Filmfarsi sensibilities are still alive in Iranian cinema. Censors of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance/Ershad Eslami take it easier with B-Grade movies, especially with light comedies. As a result, the genre of comedy has provided a safe venue to showcase mild social criticism. Many auteurs have also made filmfarsi movies. Either they needed the capital in order to make their next