Today, Iran lost one of its true giants.

Bahram Beyzayi was not just a filmmaker or a playwright — he was a national conscience. A man who carried the weight of history, myth, and truth on his shoulders, and never set it down, no matter the cost.

“Bashu, the Little Stranger” remains one of the most humane films ever made in this land. Created in the middle of the Iran–Iraq war, it refused the language of hatred and destruction. Instead, it spoke for children, for the displaced, for those whose lives are shattered by war. It was a brave, clear cry for peace at a time when silence was safer.

Beyzayi never bowed to power. He did not compromise, he did not flatter, and he did not submit to censorship. For that courage, he paid with years of exclusion and exile. In the final decades of his life, far from home, he continued his work and research at Stanford University, carrying Iran’s stories, myths, and wounds with him wherever he went.

He lived with dignity, and he created with responsibility. He taught us that art is not decoration — it is memory, resistance, and truth.

Today, we mourn not only an artist, but a guardian of Iranian culture. A national hero whose voice will never fade.

Rest in peace, Bahram Beyzayi.

Iran remembers.