TEHRAN -- Rasul Mollaqolipur is undoubtedly regarded as the number one Sacred Defense filmmaker since all his films have directly or indirectly featured the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war.

Mollaqolipur started perfecting the art of photography during the first days of the Iranian Islamic Revolution and continued professionally during the war.
He began his filmmaking career with “Neinava” in 1983 and three years later won the Best Film Crystal Simorgh of the 5th Fajr International Film Festival for his movie “Flying in the Night”.
His next films “Majnun”, “Lunar Eclipse”, and “The Refugee” were considered mediocre, but in 1995 he directed the much acclaimed “Journey to Chazzabeh”, which centered around the story of a film crew at the war front and featured amazing special effects.
This hit was followed by “Help Me” and “Hiva” and then “The Burnt Generation” (1999), which many believe to be his masterpiece.
In 2001, while filming “The Paternal Farm”, Mollaqolipur issued a press release entitled “Farewell Cinema” in which he said that this would be his last film due to the difficulties he faced in dealing with bureaucracy.
However, he returned with “M for Mother” (2006), which was about an Iranian mother, who was injured by chemical weapons during the Iran-Iraq war and her son, who was subsequently born with physical problems. The film was warmly welcomed by moviegoers, although critics labeled it gloomy and hyperbolic.
He was considered the enfant terrible of Iranian cinema and his relationship with the press was stormy due to their sensational coverage of his films.
Mollaqolipur died in March 2007 at the age of 51. He had planned to begin shooting “Evening of the Tenth Day” in April, after the last Iranian New Year holidays.