Mohammad Javad Taheri

Mohammad Javad Taheri, honestly, is one of those names that pops up and you kinda think—wait, why haven’t I heard more about this guy? He’s got his fingerprints all over Molke Soleiman from 2010, that wild biblical epic people either love or love to argue about. The film dives deep into ancient legends, spinning out Solomon’s story with a bunch of drama and magical realism. Taheri doesn’t just stick to one note, either. There’s Zanboor-e koochak, which—if you’ve seen it—feels like a total curveball. Smaller scale, sure, but it’s packed with this weird tension, exploring how people get tangled up in their own tiny problems that somehow feel massive. Then there’s Fereshtegan-e ghassab from 2013, which, let’s not sugarcoat it, is a punch in the gut. The story’s dark, following characters who are basically scraping by, wrestling with morality and survival. Taheri’s touch? It’s there in the way he lets characters just exist—flawed, desperate, sometimes weirdly funny in their misery. You’ll spot these little details in his work, like characters fidgeting or second-guessing themselves, which makes the whole thing way more real. He’s not afraid to get messy, to let things stay unresolved. If you’re into stories that don’t wrap everything up with a shiny bow—or you just want to see someone do biblical tales without making them stuffy—Taheri’s filmography is worth a look. For real, he brings this raw, restless energy to everything he touches.