Esmaeil Khalaj

Esmaeil Khalaj

Birth : 1936-01-01, Astara, Iran

History

Esmaeil Khalaj is an Iranian playwright and film and television writer, director, and actor. He was born in Astara, but went to Tehran and studied acting under the Iranian acting teacher and director, Abdolhossein Noushin. He started to write plays in the 1970s.

Profile

Esmaeil Khalaj
Esmaeil Khalaj

Movies

Modest Reception
This twisted Iranian narrative follows a mysterious couple from Tehran as they distribute large bags of money in an impoverished mountain border town. Beginning as a black comedy, the film's mood transforms as the games played by Kaveh (director Mani Haghighi) and Leyla (Taraneh Alidoosti) become increasingly perverse, as they find inventive ways of humiliating the recipients of the cash. The immorality of the central characters is at times sickening, and their chain of lies is often as puzzling to us as they are to the townsfolk depicted onscreen. What is the relationship between the pair and why are they giving away money to the needy? Modest Reception has no easy answers nor pat resolutions - instead Haghighi takes the viewer on an intriguing ride into the dark recesses of the human spirit.
A Piece of Bread
A group of youngsters participate in a race match and endure the difficult route of this race just to be hired in the Environmental Protection agency of Tehran.
Iran's Son Has No News of His Mother
A young playwright and director wants to write and perform a historical drama about faith in the Ashkani period of Iran. There is an incongruity between the man's personal life, and his quest to pursue and present history. The woman who lives with him believes he should not neglect their relationship when embarking on such a quest. The people who work with the playwright believe the play ought to be made popular to satisfy the public. Finally, this matter makes the playwright perform the play all by himself.
The Spring
A man falls in love with a stranger woman. The woman has her young lover whom she secretly dates in an uninhabited house. The man discovers that the subject of his affection is in fact his friend’s wife and in despair takes his own life.