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CURRENT EVENTS

Iran Khodro Goes Private - In one of the biggest events in Iranian industry in the past few decades, the automaker giant Iran Khodro finally moved to the private sector. This happened after a tumultuous nine hour long shareholder meeting at the end of which three out of five seats on the Board of Directors of Iran Khodro were given to the representatives of the company Crouse.

This was not a smooth move. On the same day, 140 out of 290 representatives of Iran’s parliament sent a letter protesting this decision and the National Competition Council attempted to block the move. At one point, after Crouse attempted to install a new CEO and overhaul the administrative and financial structure of Iran Khodro, the existing CEO locked all the doors and refused to let anyone in. However as of now, it appears that Crouse will ultimately keep majority control over the company.

Background on Iran Khodro

Iran Khodro was founded in 1962 as Iran National by two brothers - Ahmad and Mahmoud Khayyami. It controls over half of the Iranian automobile market today and makes cars like Samand, Peugeot, and Renault (it also used to make the iconic Paykan line).

After the revolution, the new government nationalized the automobile sector and took control of the company from its owners. Iran Khodro was neglected during the Iran-Iraq War to the point that it almost went bankrupt. However the company was revitalized after the war, particularly after a partnership with the French automaker Peugeot.

The company, one of the biggest employers in Iran, has had lots of ups and downs, but is currently in a bad state - with high debts & constant losses while it makes cars that have substandard quality and are overpriced.

There’s many reasons for these problems, including bad management, foreign sanctions, government control, and high tariffs bringing about very little competition. Most economists believe that transferring the company to the private sector is needed to take the first step to solve its problems.

However privatization is easier said than done. There have been very few success stories in Iran’s gradual privatization in the past few decades. In many cases, such as Haft Tappeh Sugarcane company, privatization was a disaster and ended up leading to widespread worker unrest.

The Rise of Crouse

Crouse (pronounced ‘cruise’ in Persian) is a company that makes car parts. The company claims to control about 30% of Iran’s auto part market. During the 2010s they slowly started buying up Iran Khodro shares, to the point that they accumulated about a third of all their stocks.

Crouse appears to have more ambitions than just controlling the parts market. They’ve already bought Bahman Khodro, a smaller automobile maker. Crouse believes that because they already specialize in a related industry, they could help vertically integrate Iran Khodro, leading to more efficiency and less costs.

In recent years there have been accusations against Crouse of corruption, bribery, and overcharging. It should be noted that none of these have been proven in court & other players in Iran’s auto industry also have similar charges against them.

Risks and Opportunities

Critics of the Crouse controlling Iran Khodro believe this is a recipe for another failed privatization attempt. They are concerned about a monopoly forming and this deal leading to even less competition and innovation.

If Crouse combines with Iran Khodro, it is possible that they misuse their position to hurt other automobile makers by giving them more unfavorable terms for car parts. This would cause Iran Khodro to dominate the Iranian market even more and conversely, help Crouse take over even more of the parts market.

This is particularly dangerous in a market like Iran, which is locked away from most foreign competitors due to sanctions, meaning there wouldn’t be foreign alternatives to Crouse.

At the same time, government control over the automobile sector has resulted in a bloated workforce, rampant nepotism and corruption, and poor quality products at a high price.

In an ideal situation, the government can pass regulations to make sure the merger doesn’t turn into an unfair monopoly, while the new management of the company can move Iran Khodro to better waters and be a bright spot in Iran’s troubled economy.

❌Ice On Negotiations 

In the previous issue of Iranophilia, I had written about how there were some promising signs about a potential deal between Iran and the US over removing sanctions. The past two weeks were a sharp turn in the other direction.

The Trump administration issued a presidential memoranda proclaiming a “return to maximum pressure” and setting draconian aims such as getting Iranian oil exports to zero and resorting UN Security Council sanctions on Iran. Oddly enough while signing the memoranda Trump repeated said he did not want to do this and hope he would not have to use it. When asked by a reporter whether he would be willing to talk to the Iranian president, he said he would.

Shortly after, the Iranian Supreme Leader categorically rejected any negotiations with the Trump administration, saying “You should not negotiate with such a government, it is unwise, it is not intelligent, it is not honourable to negotiate”, citing past experiences.

This infuriated many reformists and pragmatists, who had been hoping to start negotiations. It also put a big roadblock in the way of President Pezeshkian who had campaigned on negotiating directly with the US (this was the biggest area of difference with his rival Saeid Jallili).

These events led to a huge devaluation in the exchange rate of the toman compared to the dollar and other currencies, with one dollar exceeding 90,000 toman for the first time ever (the toman partially recovered in the past two days).

A Tragedy in Kerman - Iran was in mourning after a bus carrying gifted and talented high school students got in an accident that killed six students and injured many more.

Parents were outraged after an investigation showed the bus had not been properly maintained and should never been allowed to take the students.

The Minister of Education showed up to the funeral of the deceased girls, but was confronted by angry parents who believed he was just there for a photo op and should focus on doing his job so this never happens again.

MORE HEADLINES

• Student Murdered - Amir Mohammad Khalegi, a 19 year old business student at the University of Tehran passed away after being stabbed in the neck by thieves stealing his backpack. The incident happened near the university as he was returning to his dorm. Outraged students had a sit in and protest demanding officials improve security in the area. According to social media footage, there were also some chants against the government and at least two students were arrested.

• Continued Power Problems - There was a major blackout in Tehran on Tuesday This was more serious than preplanned ones going through targeted neighborhoods in the past few months. Even several wealthy areas were hit and traffic lights were impacted. The blackout may be related to a decrease in temperatures in the days prior.

• 22nd of Bahman -February 11th marked the 46th anniversary of the Iranian Revolution that brought the Islamic Republic to power, an event marked by state celebrations and rallies by government supporters.

CULTURE

Simorgh Winners - The winners of each category of the Fajr Festival get a “Simorgh” award (similar to an Oscar). To review all the films in the festival, see here.

The nominees and winners of the 43rd Fajr Film Festival were (winners in bold and red):

Best Film

1. ‘People's Child’ directed by Seyyed Ali Ahmadi

2. ‘Call Me Ziba’ directed by Seyyed Maziar Hashemi

3. ‘North from Southwest’ directed by Mehdi Madadkar

4. ‘Highway Deer’ directed by Abolfazl Saffari

5. ‘Prophet Moses’ for Seyyed Mahmoud Razavi

Best Actress in a Leading Role

1. Padina Kiani for ‘1968’

2. Roya Afshar for ‘Tear of the Lagoon’

3. Juliet Rezaee for ‘Call Me Ziba’

4. Fariba Naderi for ‘Setareh’s Husband’

5. Shamila Shirzad for ‘Quiet Man’

6. Merila Zarei for ‘Prophet Moses’

Best Actor in a Leading Role

1. Amir Norouzi for ‘1968’

2. Reza Masoudi for ‘Esfand’

3. Shahab Hosseini for ‘Raha’

4. Amin Hayaee for ‘Call me Ziba’

5. Mostafa Zamani for ‘North from Southwest’

6. Reza Attaran for ‘Saddam’

Best Supporting Actress

1. Linda Kiani for ‘1968’

2. Sareh Bayat for ‘Almond Eyes’

3. Ghazal Shakeri for ‘Raha’

4. Bita Aziz for ‘Quiet Man’

5. Bahareh Kian-Afshar for ‘Prophet Moses’

Best Supporting Actor

1. Abbas Ghazali for ‘Pregnant’

2. Touraj Alvand for ‘Tears of Lagoon’

3. Reza Kianian ‘People's Child’

4. Enayat Bakhshi for ‘King of Roles’

5. Peiman Qassemkhani for ‘Highway Deer’

6. Farhad Ayeesh for ‘Prophet Moses’

7. Behnam Tashakkor for ‘Prophet Moses’ 8.Mir-Saeed Molavian for ‘Guardian of the Field’

Best Director

1. Mahmoud Karimi for ‘People's Child’

2. Rasoul Sadrameli for ‘Call me Ziba’

3. Reza Jamali for ‘A Childless Village’

4. Hamid Zargarnejad for ‘North from Southwest’

5. Abolfazl Saffari for ‘Highway Deer’

6. Ebrahim Hatamikia for ‘Prophet Moses’

Best Special Effects

1. Hamid Rasoulian for ‘1968’

2. Hamid Rasoulian for ‘Esfand’

3. Arash Aqabeik for ‘Call Me Ziba’

4. Reza Torkaman for ‘North from Southwest’

5. Hamid Rasoulian for ‘Sayyad’

Best Set Design

1. Babak Karimi for ‘People's Child’

2. Amir-Hossein Haddad for ‘Taxidermy’

3. Rasoul Alizadeh for ‘Raha’

4. Mohammad-Reza Shojaee for ‘North from Southwest’

5. Mohammad-Hossein Karami for ‘Saddam’

6. Keivan Moqaddam for ‘Prophet Moses’

7. Mohammad-Hossein Karami for ‘Guardian of the Field’

Best Visual Effects

1. Mohammad Abdi for ‘Taxidermy’

2. Mohammad Baradaran for ‘God of War’

3. Farid Nazer-Fasihi for ‘Call Me Ziba’

4. Amir Valikhani for ‘Sayyad’

5. Alireza Vaez for ‘Prophet Moses’

Best Editing

1. Hamid-Reza Najafi-Rad for ‘1968’

2. Emad Khodabakhsh for ‘People's Child’

3. Loqman Khaledi for ‘Raha’

4. Bahram Dehqan for ‘Call me Ziba’

5. Hamid Zargarnejad for ‘North from Southwest’

6. Pouyan Sholevar for ‘Highway Deer’

Best Cinematography

1. Saeed Barati for ‘Esfand’

2. Milad Partovi for ‘People's Child’

3. Davoud Mohammadi for ‘Taxidermy’

4. Mohammad Aladpoush for ‘Deep Crack’

5. Saman Lotfian for ‘Call me Ziba’

6. Ali-Mohammad Qassemi for ‘North from Southwest’

7. Touraj Mansouri for ‘Prophet Moses’

Best Screenplay

1. Mahmoud Karimi & Faezeh Yarmohammadi for ‘People's Child’

2. Arash Sadeqbeigi, Milad Sadr-Ameli, Mohammad-Reza Sadr-Ameli for ‘Call me Ziba’

3. Hamid Zargarnejad, Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini, Mohammad-Javad Eslami for ‘North from Southwest’ 4.Baqer Soroush, Abolfazl Saffari for ‘Highway Deer’

4. Mahnoush Sadeqi for ‘Quiet Man’

5. Ebrahim Hatamikia for ‘Prophet Moses’

Best Animation

1. ‘Legend of Sepehr’ directed by Afsaneh Sepehr, Mehdi Jafari-Jozani, Emad Rahmani, Mehrdad Mehrabi

2. ‘Dolphin Boy 2’ directed by Mohammad-Amin Hamedani, Mohammad Kheirandish

3. ‘Zal and Roudabeh’ by Mohammad-Ali Sajjadi

4. ‘Juliet and the King’ directed by Arman Rahgozar, Ashkan Rahgozar

Best First Feature Director

1. ‘1968’ by Iraj Mohammadi

2. 'People's Child' by Seyyed Ali Ahmadi

3. ‘Deep Crack’ by Mohsen Chegini

4. ‘Almond Eyes’ by Sajjad Nasrollahi-Nasab

5. 'Raha' by Saeed Khani

6. 'Scream' by Bahman Bani-Ardalan

Best Sound

1. Parviz Abnar for ‘People's Child’

2. Saeed Bojnourdi, Hossein Abolsedq for ‘Taxidermy’

3. Masih Seraj, Mehrshad Malakouti for ‘North from Southwest’

4. Meisam Yardilou, Hossein Qourchian for ‘Highway Deer’

5. Arash Qassemi for ‘Dolphin Boy 2’

Best Costume Design

1. ‘People's Child’ - Nazanin Khazaee

2. ‘North from Southwest’ - Niaz Hamidi

3. ‘Scream’ - Rasoul Alizadeh

4. ‘Highway Deer’ - Rana Amini

5. ‘Quiet Man’ - Mahshid Sadeqi

6. ‘Prophet Moses’ - Azar Mohammadi

Best First-Time Director

1. Amir-Mehdi Parvizi for '1968'

2. Mahmoud Karimi for 'People's Child'

3. Arman Zarrinkoub for 'Deep Crack'

4. Ebrahim Amini for 'Almond Eyes'

5. Hessam Farahmand for 'Raha'

6. Mohammad-Reza Ardalan for 'Scream'

Best Music

1. ‘Esfand’ - Karen Homayounfar

2. ‘People's Child’ - Christophe Rezaee

3. ‘Deep Crack’ - Peiman Yazdanian

4. ‘North from Southwest’ - Habib Khazaeefar

5. ‘Juliet and the King’- Behnam Jalilian, Ata Akhgarandouz

Best Makeup

1. ‘People's Child’ - Ehsan Ronasi

2. ‘Call Me Ziba’ - Azim Faraeen

3. ‘North from Southwest’ - Shahram Khalaj

4. ‘Saddam’ - Abbas Abbasi

5. ‘Prophet Moses’- Shahram Khalaj

Trailers - In the last two weeks several more trailers were released for the films shown in the festival. I included the trailers for two films in Iranophilia # 002. Here are links to additional trailers for some of the films:

A Childless Village

Prophet Moses

Setareh’s Husband

1967

North by Southwest

God of War

Bloody Game

Esfand

Maria

Calm Man

King of Roles

Antique

Khati

End the Game

Legal Trouble - Two different film fell into legal trouble in the past week.

Firstly, Filimo, an Iranian streaming service, was sued by the Headquarters for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, a government affiliated group, for depicting mixed dancing and other things in the serial Taasian. The Headquarters also sued the IRIB’s media regulation authority for allowing the serial to broadcast on the streaming app.

Then, Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Saneeha, directors of the film “My Favorite Cake” were summoned to court on charged of propaganda against the system and indecent content. This film was made in Iran but did not follow Ministry of Culture requirements, such as women having to cover their hair.

SPORTS

A Return to Azadi - Team Melli finally returns to Tehran’s iconic Azadi Stadium for its World Cup Qualifiers against UAE (March 20th) and Uzbekistan (March 25). This is after months of being forced to play elsewhere due to repairs and a brief period of Iran losing hosting rights due to clashes with Israel.

AFC U20 World Cup - Iran’s kicked off the 2025 U20 AFC Asian Cup with a confident 3 - 0 win against Indonesia. It faces Yemen on Sunday February 16th and Uzbekistan on Wednesday February 19th.

Upcoming Asian Club Matches - The 8th and final game of the AFC Champions League Elite Group Stage is critical for both of Iran’s representatives.

Esteghlal (currently in 8th place) plays Qatar’s Al Rayyan (6th) on Tuesday February 18th in Qatar.

Meanwhile Persepolis (9th place) play Saudi’s Al-Nassr (3rd) on Monday Feburary 17th in Tehran’s Azadi Stadium. Al-Nassr superstar Cristiano Ronaldo will not be coming to Iran this time (he did in 2023).

The top 8 teams go on to the knockout stages, so this game is critical for both Esteghlal and Persepolis.

Meanwhile in the AFC Champions League Two (the lower level tournament), Tractor Sazi will play the second leg of its Round of 16 clash against Bahrain’s Al-Khalidiya in Tabriz. Tractor won the first leg in Bahrain 2-1.

ACROSS THE WEB

• From Iran, a Separation (Persian): This 52 minute documentary is about Asghar Farhadi’s 2011 film “A Separation”, which received widespread international success, including an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. It interviews the crew who made the film, covers its journey from start to finish, and includes interviews with Iranian of many different backgrounds about their views of the film.

• Controversary Over English Language: Elnaz Sakhaeian, the Nestle Iran country manager, sparked a fierce debate online after a clip of her was posted where she was speaking at a conference and sprinkling in English almost every 3rd word in her speech. Many users thought she was disrespecting the Persian language just to seem trendy. Others defended her, pointing out she was in a business setting & found the controversy sexist.

UPCOMING CALENDAR

The next few weeks will be filled with important days for Iranians. Esfand, the final month of the Iranian calendar, starts on February 19th. Nowruz - Persian New Year - is on March 20th. Ramadan, the month on the Islamic calendar when Muslims, including some Iranians, fast, will start around February 28th.

Altogether, this means the next month will be a time that things slow down and Iranians focus on each “holiday season”. There are usually special films for both Nowruz and Ramadan. The currency exchange rate typically spikes around Nowruz as large numbers of Iranians travel abroad for the holidays and need foreign currencies.

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