TEHRAN – The two-minute film “Faust and Mephistopheles”, directed by the first female director in the motion picture industry in 1903, is kept in the archive of the Golestan Palace, a Qajar era monument located in downtown Tehran.

It is a re-telling of the classic tale of Faust by French pioneer filmmaker Alice Guy-Blaché.
The film was purchased by Qajar king Mozaffar ad-Din Shah (1853-1907) during his sojourn in France, archaeologist and UNESCO counselor in Iran Shahriar Adl told the Persian service of the Mehr News Agency on Tuesday.
According a Western newspaper clipping in 1900 that is kept at the palace, Mozaffar ad-Din Shah had previously seen a Faust opera, but it did not please him, he added.
A few years later, Mozaffar ad-Din Shah acquired “Faust and Mephistopheles”. This shows that the shah was interested in the story of Faust, Adl noted.
Adl said that a number of experts of the National Center of Cinematography in France have restored this copy of the film, which had been partially damaged over the years.