Partovi, the prominent director of children's cinema and scriptwriter of many films, including Muhammad: The Messenger of God, died on Tuesday morning in Day Hospital in Tehran after a short illness due to the infection of coronavirus.
He was born in Rasht. After studying theater arts in school he wrote mainly scripts for TV series.
In 1988 he made his feature film debut with “Golnar”. His 2007 film "Cafe Transit", which received a special mention at Mar del Plata film festival, was selected by Iran as its candidate for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
He has written screenplays for other directors, most notably Jafar Panahi's The Circle. In 2013 he acted in and co-directed "Close Curtain" with Panahi. Partovi has trained and supported many Iranian artists and filmmakers, most notably Bahman Ghobadi.
Recently, he was honored at the 33rd International Film Festival for Children and Youth (ICFF).