MON CINEMA: "Dokhtar-e Lor" aka "The Lor Girl" First Sound Film (1933)

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MON CINEMA: "Dokhtar-e Lor" aka "The Lor Girl" First Sound Film (1933)
by Darius Kadivar
26-Jul-2010
 

Lor Girl ( Dokhtar-e Lor ) was the first sound film ever to be produced in the Persian language. In 1932, it was produced by Ardeshir Irani and Abdolhossein Sepanta under the Imperial Film Company in Bombay.

The movie starred Sepanta himself along with Ruhangiz Sami-Nezhad, Hadi Shirazi and Sohrab Puri. The filming took only seven months to complete, and the movies arrived in Iran in October 1933. They were released at only two major theatres, Mayak and Sepah.

The Lor Girl as the first Iranian film with sound was an instantaneous success and shows were ultimately sold out.

Plot:

The movie is about a young teahouse girl from the Lor people that is kidnapped and taken by a band of thieves when she was little. The leader of the thieves, Gholi Khan, is beginning to look at her with interest with her coming of age. At the teahouse, she meets a young man called Jafar. They fall in love, and plan to escape together. Gholi Khan catches on to their plans and beats up Jafar. Jafar and Golnar, the Lor girl, escape to Bombay to find security from the lawlessness of Iran. They later return in the movie to find a different kind of lawlessness than before.

This movie is said to have a political undertone in the plot that suggests the differences under the Qajar dynasty's rule, and later Reza Shah's.

Fist Woman Star:

The Lor Girl is the first feature film to use a female performer as a star. It was still a taboo at the time to broadcast women in film and even radio at the time. Roohangiz Saminejad was a volunteer and a wife of a studio employee at the time. This role made her an automatic star whose fame unfortunately lasted for a short period. In her later years, she moved to Tehran under a different name and died in old age in anonymity.

Trivia:

The people that Sepanta found in the Iranian diaspora community in India were mainly from the Kerman province and had thick Kermani accents. To accommodate for this difference, the storyline actually plays out in rural Kerman.

The movie was remade in the 1970s and titled Jafar-o-Golnar.

Author's Notes:

Sound was first introduced on Film with the Jazz Singer (1926/1927) with Al Johnson in the Title Role:

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Red Wine

...

by Red Wine on

Hmm, another good dug. you gave me Dariush jan ... I have a good friend in Swiss1 channel tv, i will talk with her about this maybe she knows someone to help us.

Mamnoon Dariush jan to answer me :=) .


Darius Kadivar

Redwine Jaan Good Suggestion

by Darius Kadivar on

If the cinemateque Française has a copy they should be able to reissue it on DVD or work on remastering it if the copy is in poor condition.

I know that Martin Scorsese and Kiarostami have co founded a World Cinema Foundation aimed at such endeavors such as Film Restoration ( Not of the Monarchy Yet ... ;0) ... ) :

CANNES 2007: IRAN'S KIAROSTAMI IN SCORSESE'S ADVISORY BOARD BY DARIUS KADIVAR

They should be the ones to contact if such a DVD release should be considered :

//worldcinemafoundation.net/

The Best is to contact them directly or create an online petition to send to the following Contact:

Offices:

17, Route de Chêne CH-1211
Geneva – Switzerland

110 W. 57th Street, 5th Floor
New York, NY 10019

web: www.worldcinemafoundation.org
email: wcf@bside.com


Red Wine

دختر لر

Red Wine


بسیار پیش،سالهای قبل از انقلاب، یکی‌ از دوستان پدرم تعریف میکرد که یک نسخه از این فیلم در آرشیو فیلمهای تاریخی در پاریس و نیو یورک موجود است،باید دید آیا اجازه میدهند این فیلم به صورت خصوصی (در پاریس مثلا!) برای افراد خاصی‌ پخش شود یا خیر !

داریوش جان از شما ممنونم،بلاگ‌های شما من را همیشه روشن میکنند.

با سپاس.