Bahrām Beyzai (also spelt Beyzāêi, Beizāi, Beyzāêi, Beyzāee, Persian: بهرام بیضائی; 26 December 1938 – 26 December 2025) was an Iranian filmmaker, playwright, theatre director, researcher, and ostād ("master") of Persian literature, mythology, and Iranian studies.
Beyzaie was the son of the poet Ne'matallah Beyzai (best known by his literary pseudonym "Zokā'i"), and there were several other poets in his family.
Before he started making films in 1970, he was a leading playwright. Despite his belated start in cinema, Beyzai is often considered a pioneer of a generation of filmmakers whose works are sometimes described as the Iranian New Wave. His Bashu, the Little Stranger (1986) was voted "Best Iranian Film of all time" in November 1999 by the Persian movie magazine Picture World poll of 150 Iranian critics and professionals.
From 2010, Beyzai lived and taught at Stanford University in California, United States.
While in United States he was very critical of Iranian Islamic regime.
Bahram Beyzai was born on 26 December 1938 in Tehran, to a Baháʼí poet, anthologist, biographer, and jurist father, Ne'matallah Beyzai, and a housewife mother, Nayereh Movafegh. Beyzai’s father used the pen name "Zokā’i" in his poetry, composed poems about the Baháʼí Faith, and wrote a four-volume book on Baháʼí poets entitled Tadhkirat al-Shu‘arā-ye Qarn-e Avval-e Baháʼí (Biographical Anthology of the Poets of the First Bahá’í Century). The celebrated poet Adib Beyzai, one of the most profound poets of 20th-century Iran, was Beyzai's paternal uncle. His paternal grandfather, Mirzā Mohammad-Rezā Ārāni ("Ebn Ruh"), and paternal great-grandfather, the Mulla Mohammad-Faqih Ārāni ("Ruh'ol-Amin"), were also notable poets.
Bahram Beyzai started skipping school from around the age of 17 in order to go to the movies, which were becoming increasingly popular in Iran at a rapid pace. This only deepend his hunger to learn more about cinema and the visual arts.
The young Bahram did not seem very interested in his family legacy or poetry, the latter of which was pursued by his father, uncles and cousins. In high school, Dar'ol-Fonoun, he wrote two historical plays which went on to become his preferred method of writing.
At the age of 21, he did substantial research on the traditional Persian plays, particularly ta'ziyeh, and by 1961 he had already spent a great deal of time studying and researching other ancient Persian and pre-Islamic cultures and literatures. This, in turn, led him to study Eastern theatre and traditional Iranian theatre and arts, which would help him formulate a new non-Western identity for Iranian theatre. He also became acquainted with Persian painting.
In 1968, Beyzai was one of the nine founders of the Iranian Writers' Guild, which was a highly controversial organization in the face of censorship. In 1969, he was invited to teach at the Theater Department of the College of Fine Arts at the University of Tehran. He chaired this department from 1972 to 1979. With his readership, many prominent authors and artists started teaching at the department and created the most fruitful period in the history of that department.
Beyzaie's groundbreaking A Study on Iranian Theatre (Namayesh dar Iran), published in mid-1960s is still considered the most important text on the history of Iranian theater. Beyzaie is also the first scholar in Iran to publish books on theatre of Japan and theatre of China.
Some of his plays, such as his masterpiece Death of Yazdgerd, have been translated into numerous languages and performed worldwide. Death of Yazdgerd has been performed in Iran, France, England, India and the USA, among other countries, and was made into a film of the same name by Beyzai in 1981. Death of Yazdgerd and Kalat Claimed have been translated into English by Manuchehr Anvar.
He was a leading playwright as well as theatre historian, and is often considered the greatest playwright of the Persian language, and holds a reputation as "The Shakespeare of Persia".
The 1970s and the outset of a cinematic career
In 1969, he began his film career by directing the short film Amu Sibilou (Uncle Moustache) followed by "Safar" in 1970. With these films, Beyzai is often considered to be a pioneer of the Iranian New Wave, a Persian cinema movement that was started in the late 1960s.
Immediately after, in 1971, he made his first feature film Ragbar (Downpour) which critics regard to this day as one of the most successful Iranian films ever made. The successful film addresses the late Parviz Fannizadeh as its central character and protagonist.
He produced and directed eight films, including Qaribe va Meh (Stranger and the Fog) (1974), Cherike-ye Tara (Ballad of Tara) (1979), Bashu, the Little Stranger (1986, released in 1989), Shāyad Vaghti digar (Maybe Another Time) (1988) and Mosaferan (Travellers) (1992).
In 1981, the revolutionary leaders started the Iranian Cultural Revolution, as a result of which Beyzaie, among many others, was expelled from the university. He continued writing and making films, though. His screenplay Ruz-e Vaqe'e (The Fateful Day) was adapted into a film in 1995 and another screenplay was adapted into a film named Fasl-e Panjom (The fifth season) in 1996, while he also made four of his finest films. He also edited Ebrahim Hatamikia's Borj-e Minu (Minoo Tower).