Censored Iranian actor still in the spotlight

Two Vossoughi movies in this year's film fest
Although Behrouz Vossoughi has not acted in an Iranian film since 1978, he's still a big, albeit censored, name in his native land.
But he was cast in the limelight here when Abbas Kiarostami unexpectedly handed over his Akira Kurosawa Lifetime Achievement award to his old friend at the San Francisco International Film Festival last year.
Interviewed recently at his Sausalito home, Vossoughi, a vigorous 64 with an undefeated sense of humor, was still touched by Kiarostami's generosity when he talked about the event that led up to the unprecedented gesture.
The two men were at a party the night before the awards presentation when katayoun Beglari, a film critic and cultural editor at the Voice of America, took them aside for an interview.
Kiarostami already knew that Vossoughi had been the star of some 90 Iranian films including his performance as a killer avenging a rape and murder in "Qaysar" (Caesar), the groundbreaking 1969 production that had a lasting influence on Iranian cinema.
However, Kiarostami didn't know how difficult life was for Vossoughi during 20 some years in the united States.
The actor had had a hint that trouble was brewing before the Islamic revolution in 1979.
He was in Isfahan in 1978 shooting "Caravans" with Anthony Queen, he said, "when somebody called and told me, "Because we like you very much, we don't want to hurt you, but there's a bomb in the toilet of your theater. We want you to sell this place because we want to make a church there."
Then they called again and said they would exchange a chicken farm for the theater, but I don't know how to run a chicken farm, " Vossoughi replied.
The situation was saved when the Ministry of Culture offered to buy his theater and told him to cash the check in the United States where he was scheduled to appear in an Iranian-directed film "The Cat in the Cage" (1978).

Revolution triumphs
Meanwhile with the overthrow of the Shah, the Islamic revolution was triumphing. Vossoughi's mother called him in Los Angeles and warned him and his three brothers not to return "because it's so bizarre here."
Magazines and newspapers were publishing photos of Vossoughi and the Shah with caption saying, "He's one of them!" to help his brothers get green cards, Vossoughi bought a car wash for them so they could work here. "The I worked in the car wash too for a year and a half," Vossoughi recalled with a laugh.
For a while, he was occasionally cast in small Hollywood roles and in the TV series "Falcon Crest," but his employment fell off drastically and he lost his agent when the U.S. Embassy in Tehran was taken over in 1979 and 52 hostages were held for 444 days.
"Americans were looking at us like we were terrorists," Vossoughi recalled, "and sometimes they still look at us that way. I'm here for 20 years and if I was a terrorist I'd be there."
Although he can't return to Iran, his old films are popular on video and are beginning to be shown in theaters with sex and drinking scenes cut.
The star appears in nearly every scene, but no mention of his name is permitted either on the film or in ads for them.
Two of his early films will be shown at this year's San Francisco Film Festival: "Dash akol" (1971), directed by Massoud Kimiaie, the sad tale of a lovesick man, at 9 p.m. Saturday at the Palace of Fine Arts ( a question and answer session with the actor follows) and "Tangsir" (1973), directed by Amir Naderi, about a wronged man seeking revenged, at 12:30 p.m. April 29 at the Kabuki.
He recently finished writing his autobiography which will be published in Farsi by a famous Iranian writer, Nasser Zeraati, now living in exile in Sweden.

Tears in his eyes
As Vossoughi finished telling his story to Beglari last year, he said he thought he saw tears in Kiarostamis eyes.
"Then Abbas couldn't talk into her tape recorder. He was talking from the bottom of his heart. It was beautiful."
The next night, when Vossoughi and his wife went to see Kiarostami's film "The Wind Will Carry Us," the Kabuki was packed with a largely Iranian audience.
Vossoughi said he thought he might be introduced, but he was shocked when Kiarostami called him on stage to receive the Kurosawa award.
"Later, I asked him why. Abbas told me, "I didn't sleep until 4 a.m. thinking about your story and I thought I had to do something for you even though we haven't worked together."
When someone in the audience also asked Kiarostami, "Why did you give him the prize?" he answered with an allusion to a deft basketball move.
"I didn't give it to him. He took it."