The first Persian filmmaker was Mirza Ebrahim Khan Akkas Bashi, the official photographer of Muzaffar al-Din Shah, the Shah of Persia from 1896–1907. After a visit to Paris in July 1900, Akkas Bashi obtained a camera and filmed the Shah's visit to Europe upon the Shah's orders. He is said to have filmed the Shah’s private and religious ceremonies, but no copies of such films are available. Soon thereafter, Khan Baba Motazedi emerged as another pioneer in Iranian motion picture photography.
In 1904 Mirza Ebrahim Khan Sahhafbashi opened the first movie theater in Tehran.
In 1925, an Armenian-Iranian cinematographer, Ovanes Ohanian, decided to establish the first film school in Iran. Within five years he managed to run the first session of the school under the name of "Parvareshgahe Artistiye cinema" (The Cinema Artist Educational Center).
In 1932, Abdolhossein Sepanta made the first Iranian sound film, entitled Lor Girl. In 1935, Later, he directed movies such as Ferdowsi (the life story of the most celebrated epic poet of Iran), Shirin and Farhaad (a classic Iranian love story), and Black Eyes (the story of Nader Shah's invasion of India). In 1937, he directed Laili and Majnoon, an Eastern love story similar to the English story of Romeo and Juliet. These are seen as the most influential movies ever to be produced in Iranian film and that helped create the breakthrough into synchronized sound, sound technologically coupled with images and actions, opposed to earlier silent films. These are known as the great early classics.
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