Iranian award-winning film director Dariush Mehrjui and his wife Vahideh Mohammadifar have been killed. The couple was killed in their home in the metropolis of Karaj west of the capital Tehran on Saturday, Iranian media reported unanimously. According to the report, the police have launched a murder investigation.

According to a report in the newspaper "Shargh", the 83-year-old director's daughter found the couple who had been stabbed in the neck with a knife or sharp object, the newspaper reported, citing the police. The regime's judiciary warned against speculation about the background of the crime.

A statement by the Iranian Ministry of Culture said that: “This tragic and painful incident will be followed up by the relevant institutions until its dimensions are clarified.”

In an interview with Mezan about the latest details of the murder case, the chief prosecutor of Alborz province said that according to the forensic report, the cause of death of the couple was a knife or a sharp object. He added that according to the forensic report, after the autopsy, the cause of death of the late director and his wife was reported as heavy bleeding due to injuries caused by the impact of a knife or a winning object and a sharp tip on the body.

The chief prosecutor stressed that judicial orders have been issued to the judicial and law enforcement authorities of Alborz province as soon as possible to identify and arrest the perpetrator or agents of this crime.

Mehrjui was one of the pioneers of New Iranian Cinema, into which he introduced neorealism. With his 1969 film "The Cow", he won the Audience Award at the Venice Film Festival in 1971 and became internationally known. In 1993, he was awarded the Golden Shell at the Basque Film Festival San Sebastián for his work "Sara", based on Henrik Ibsen's play "Nora or A Doll's Home".