played the leading male role as well. The story is about Golnar, a village teahouse maid that falls in love with Jafar, a government agent. The two fall in love and escape to India until political tensions in troubled Iran die down. The movie is said to be a subtle political commentary on the lack of general public security during a period when the Pahlavi dynasty is replacing the Qajar dynasty in Iran. The leader of early Iranian cinema In the 1930s, there were nine talkie films produced from 1931–1937. Of these nine, five are Sepanta's films. He's considered by many to be the Leader of that era, when films were mainly political documentaries and films for entertainment were disliked by the ruling dynasty. He was director, screenwriter, and many times, the lead role of his films. These were The Lor Girl (1931), Ferdowsi, Shirin-o-Farhaad, Black Eyes, and Leyli o Majnun (1936 film), which were produced in India. Sepanta was a man of letters and a prominent scholar in pre-Islamic Persian literature, therefore his films were extremely national and historical, a trend which prevailed in other artistic and literary circles at the time and was the outcome of the suppressed but restless social and cultural situation in the society. Concerning his motives in making A Lor Girl, Sepanta explains later: Until 1933 and The Lor girl Iran's cinema was not so popular and the few cinemas in Tehran and other major cities just served the aristocracy and some particular classes of the society. Moreover, Iranian filmmakers had no clear line of thought. With the exception of Sepanta, who used the elements of Iran's ancient literature in his works, other filmmakers would mostly imitate foreign movies. Sepanta's superior films raised the expectations of Iranian movie audiences. In 1934, he made his second film Ferdowsi at the millenary celebrations of the great Persian epic poet Ferdowsi. Sepanta's third film. Shirin-o-Farhaad. was based on a romantic story from Nizami dramatic poetry. The film was shot in India in four months and was screened towards the end of 1934. Sepanta directed his fourth film, The Black Eyes, and screened it in Tehran for four weeks. In 1936, Sepanta made his final commercial film, Laili-o-Majnoon. Between 1930 and 1936 the Iranian film industry was shut down, and Sepanta continued his activities alone, and produced his films and kept the market live and busy. After Laili-o-Majnoon,