Daryush Shokof
- Writer
- Producer
- Director
Daryush Shokof is an artist and film-maker who left Iran in the 1970s
for the U.S. and under the name of AliReza Shokoufandeh. He studied
mathematics and physics at E.N.M.U. and then went on to get a masters
degree in management from U.D. in Texas. He became a full-time artist
in Germany where he moved to from New York in early 1980s. He coined
the term maximalism in the arts in 1990 in Cologne Germany, and
together with many of the artists of the time they made many
exhibitions under the maximalists at Gallery Schulze in Cologne in
1990, both in Europe and in the U.S. He first made a name for himself
as a script-writer by copying works from two great directors of the
time Federico Fellini, and Pier Paolo Pasolini, changing the names of
the characters and some situations and presented them to his father as
his own works, which made his father believe he was a genius. He was
soon the talk of a bigger circle of friends and family and had to write
at a level to match his great idols from the age of eleven years. None
of his writings ever showed any promise until finally and at age 42
he wrote a story which attracted the attention of two of the legendary
names of cinema. Marlon Brando and Anthony Quinn both wanted to have
the lead in Seven Servants. Quinn played the role along with David
Warner, who played the role offered to Norman Mailer (who was so in
admiration of the story that refused to play the role saying his acting
was not up to the task). In the next 10 years he did more than 12
feature films and 10 short films with great originality both in
writing and directing. He has made his movies through the help of
private friends and contribution and cooperation from a great many
professionals who believed and supported in his abilities as a
film-maker. He has never had any of his movies released to the public
and has never received any funding for any of his films from any
official film industry companies, or from any country. He continues
making films under amazing conditions, which in itself is truly a story
to make a film about.
