Khosrow Sinai

Khosrow Sinai (Persian: خسرو سینایی‎, 19 January 1941 – 1 August 2020) was an Iranian film director, screenwriter, music composer and scholar.[4]

Khosrow Sinai
Sinai in 2015
Born(1941-01-19)19 January 1941
Sari, Iran
Died1 August 2020(2020-08-01) (aged 79)
Tehran, Iran
Alma materAlborz High School
TU Wien
University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna
OccupationFilm director, screenwriter, music composer
Years active1966[1]–2020
Notable work
Viva ...!
In the Alleys of Love
The Bride of Fire
Spouse(s)
(
m. 1975)
Partner(s)Gizella Varga Sinai (1967–2020)
Children4
Parent(s)Nasir Sinaei (father)[2]
Khanom Hakam (mother)[3]
AwardsCrystal Simorgh for Best Director (1984)
Crystal Simorgh for Best Screenplay (2000)
Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland (2008)
Signature

Sinai's work was influenced by documentaries and focused on social and artistic subjects. "Bride of Fire" is among his best known movies, and has won multiple awards in both domestic and international film festivals. He was the first Iranian film director to win an international prize after the Islamic revolution in Iran and has been awarded the Knight's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland.

Biography

Khosrow Sinai was born on 19 January 1941 in Sari, north of Iran.[4] He graduated in 1958 from Alborz High School in Tehran, and then went to Austria for further education. He spent four years studying Architecture at the Vienna University of Technology and three years study in music composition at the Vienna Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. He graduated in music education from the Vienna Music Conservatory. Finally he graduated as cinema and television director (main study) and screenplay writing (subsidiary study) from Vienna Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts (with honors).

In 1963 he also published a poetry collection Muds Blisters.

After these years of study he returned to Iran in 1967 and worked in the Ministry of Culture and Arts (till 1972), and as instructor in various universities in the fields of screenplay writing and documentary film until 1992.

He also worked in National Iranian Television (now called Seda o Sima) as producer, screenplay writer, director, and editor making about 100 short films, documentaries, and features. He is best known for his Avant-garde documentaries and also his unique style in docu-drama. He has been a juror in several national and foreign film festivals.

Filmography

"Arus-e Atash", (The Bride of Fire) was one of his most successful films in box office and won the people's choice award, and best screenplay at the 18th Fajr Film Festival.[5] In addition, Sinai won a Crystal Globe at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.

Filmography of Khosrow Sinai
Year Title Role Notes
1977 Impressions of a City, Tehran Today Director
1979 Long live (Persian: زنده باد, Zendeh bad)
1980 Viva ...! award winner in Karlovy Vary Film Festival
1983 The Inner Beast (Persian: هیولای درون, Hayula-ye darun) Director 2nd Fajr Festival as the best director
1983 The Lost Requiem (orig. title: Marsiye-ye gomshode, مرثیه گمشده) documentary about the Poles who found refuge in Iran during World War II, after being forcibly taken by the Soviet regime to Soviet labor camps in Siberia.[4][6]
1987 Going astray... (orig. Persian title: Yar dar khaneh..., ...یار در خانه, meaning "A friend at Home")
1990 In the Alleys of Love presented at the Un Certain Regard section at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival[7]
1997 Autumn Alley documentary/fiction, shown at the IDFA Film Festival - Amsterdam
1999 The Bride of Fire award-winning in several national and foreign festivals, about wedding customs and the tradition of compulsory marriage in the tribes of southern Iran.[4]
2005 Talking with a Shadow (Persian: Goftogu ba sayeh گفت و گو با سایه) A documentary-drama film about Sadeq Hedayat (1903-1951).[4]
2005 The Carpet, the Horse, the Turkoman (Persian: فرش، اسب، ترکمن, Farsh, asb, Torkaman)
2006 The Desert of Blood (Persian: کویر خون, Kawir-e khun)
2014 Rainbow Island (Persian: جزیره رنگین, Jazire-ye rangin)

Published books and screenplays
  • The Man in White
  • The Artists of a Bloodshedding Era
  • The Bride of Fire (Film Script)
  • The Post-communist Cinema (translated from English).
  • The Lost Requiem
  • Translation from German: My Journey and Adventures in Iran, a book by Ármin Vámbéry (1863).

He has also written and translated numerous essays about cinema and other fine arts.

Personal life

Sinai lived with his two wives for years, a Hungarian woman Gizella Varga Sinai, and Farah Ossouli, both painters.[8] His three daughters are artists, and his one son is a scientist.[8]

Sinai was diagnosed with Coronavirus disease 2019 in late July 2020, after spending months in the hospital for lung infections.[9] On 1 August 2020, Sinai died of the disease in a hospital in Tehran at the age of 79.[10]

See also

References
  1. دوران کاری
  2. نمایش مستند «دستگاه» و تجلیل از پدر یک فیلمساز در بوشهر‎
  3. بیوگرافی
  4. "Khosrow Sinai: A Retrospective". Financial Tribune. 18 August 2018. Retrieved 13 December 2019.
  5. "Fajr 18th".
  6. "تقدیر از مهتاب کرامتی در پاریس" [Appreciation of Moonlight Kramati in Paris]. BBCPersian.com (in Persian). 2007. Retrieved 13 December 2019.
  7. "Festival de Cannes: In the Alleys of Love". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 9 August 2009.
  8. Kav, Fatemeh; i (14 January 2011). "A family affair". Mashallah News. Retrieved 13 December 2019. their dad, film maker Khosrow Sinai, and his two wives, Farah Ossouli and Gizella Varga-Sinai,
  9. مبارزه سخت خسرو سینایی با کرونا
  10. خسرو سینایی درگذشت
  • Official website
  • Michaël Abescassis, Impressions of an Auteur, Tehran Today: Talking with Iranian Director Khosrow Sinai, Bright Lights Film Journal, May 2009, .
  • Ryszard Antolak, The Lost Requiem of Khosrow Sinai, Persian Journal, 25 November 2007, .
    The Lost Requiem: Khosrow Sinai's priceless Iranian and Polish historical document, The Iranian, 26 November 2007, .
  • Khosrow Sinai, The passing of the Polish through Iran (Gozar-e Lahestāni-hā az Iran), in Persian, Jadid Online, 28 May 2009, (Persian), (English).
    An audio slideshow by Shokā Sahrā'i (with English subtitles): (7 min 46 sec).
  • An extended interview with Kh. Sinai, his biography, list of books, in Persian (artebox.ir)
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