Nasser Malek-Motiei Passed Away

Nasser Malek-Motiei, an old actor of Iranian cinema, passed away on the evening of June 4. He had been hospitalized last week due to kidney failure and shortness of breath. Jafar Panahi, a renowned Iranian filmmaker, reacted to Malek-Motiei's death on his Instagram page, stating: 'He left without achieving his dream of being seen on the cinema screen. Who should be held accountable?' Nasser Malek-Motiei was born in 1930 in Tehran and during his career in pre-revolution cinema, he acted in over 90 films and directed 9 films. However, after the revolution and the change in circumstances, he could not continue his cinematic activities, with the film 'Barzakhis' directed by Iraj Ghaderi in 1982 being an exception. This film was briefly shown before its screening was halted due to protests from a group of opponents. After 'Barzakhis', both Malek-Motiei and his co-star Mohammad Ali Fardin were not allowed to work in Iranian cinema until 2013 when he acted in the film 'Naghsh Negar' directed by Ali Atashani. In the years following the revolution and during Malek-Motiei's ban on activity, there were attempts for his return to cinema; the most significant was Masoud Kimiai's effort to get permission for him to act in the film 'Soldiers of Friday' in 2003. Kimiai wanted to cast Malek-Motiei as the middle-aged sergeant in his film, but he was not granted permission, and the role eventually went to Behzad Javaherbakhsh. Kamal Tabrizi and his producer also wanted Malek-Motiei to play one of the roles in the film 'Reward', which was shot in 2008, and even a makeup test was done for him, but he was not allowed to act. However, finally, the dream of being seen on screen again was realized while Nasser Malek-Motiei entered his ninth decade of life. With the release of the film 'Naghsh Negar', Nasser Malek-Motiei returned to Iranian cinema after 33 years. After acting in 'Naghsh Negar' and appearing in a film after 31 years, he expressed his love for cinema by saying: 'I no longer have the strength to work in cinema, but when I see the filming camera, memories come alive for me; I have never sought to show off in cinema, rather cinema is love for me.'