Background
His mother admired cinema and the arts and often took her children to the theater.
director film editor screenwriter
His mother admired cinema and the arts and often took her children to the theater.
He completed his education in History and Journalism, and wrote eight plays which went on stage not only in different cities of Iran, but also in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Greece.
He was one of the most influential figures in Iran"s movie industry and was nicknamed "Iran"s Hitchcock". Born 1923 in Tabriz to a family of Armenian immigrants. Khachikian"s father escaped the Armenian Genocide in 1915 and settled in Tabriz.
Samuel Khachikian published his first poem “The Prison” in the Armenian newspaper Alik when he was nine.
Five years later, he gave his first stage performance in Tabriz in a play titled “Seville”. Khachikian made his first film in 1953, titled “The Return”.
He was among the first and few directors who used the decoupage technique on the film set, preparing the complete shooting script in advance. As an innovative filmmaker, he turned the production of murder mysteries into a popular new wave in the Iranian filmmaking.
He made the first ever movie trailer in the history of Iranian cinema for the movie “A Girl from Shiraz” in 1954.
Some of his films such as “The Strike” and “The Eagles” were box office hits of their times. Samuel"s son Edwin Khachikian is currently a director in Tehran, Iran. Samuel"s brother Souren Khachikian was also heavily involved in the production of his films.
Souren"s grandson Ara H. Keshishian is currently working as a film editor in Hollywood.
His 1956 film A Party in Hell was entered into the 8th Berlin International Film Festival. He died on October 22, 2001 at the age of seventy-eight.