Talebzadeh, renowned Iranian filmmaker and researcher, laid to rest in Tehran

Veteran Iranian filmmaker, director and researcher Nader Talebzadeh has been laid to rest at a cemetery in southern Tehran.

The burial ceremony held at Behesht-e Zahra on Sunday morning was attended by hundreds of mourners, including senior officials, luminaries, family members, friends, colleagues, journalists, among others.

Among the participants were Peyman Jebelli, head of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), Brigadier General Esmail Qa’ani, the commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), and Ebrahim Hatamikia, veteran Iranian filmmaker.

Earlier, a funeral ceremony was held for Talebzadeh at the holy shrine of Imam Reza, the eighth Shia Imam, in the northeastern city of Mashhad.

Talebzadeh, 69, succumbed to his heart disease at a hospital in the Iranian capital on Friday.

Born in Tehran in 1952, Talebzadeh was a documentary filmmaker, producer, TV presenter, cinema director, researcher and journalist.

He directed numerous award-winning movies and produced his first feature-length movie titled “The Messiah” in 2007. The movie depicted the life and teachings of Jesus from an Islamic perspective, based not only on the Bible but also on the Holy Quran.

Talebzadeh brought his own experiences of the eight-year Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s into his work to expose the brutalities of the former Iraqi regime under Saddam Hussein and the ravages of war.

Talebzadeh also served as the chairman of the International New Horizon Conference, an annual event that shines a light on the hegemonic policies and war crimes of the US and the Israeli regime.

He and his wife Zeinab Mehanna were blacklisted and sanctioned by Washington in February 2019 for organizing the conference.

Talebzadeh’s death has been widely grieved in Iran and across the region, where he was known as the face of resistance media and a champion of the Palestinian cause.

In a message on Saturday, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei offered condolences on the death of the “revolutionary researcher and artist.”

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