Ammon News - Prominent Iranian filmmaker Nasser Taghvai, widely known for his long struggle against censorship, Taghvai has died at the age of 84, his wife said Tuesday.

“Nasser Taghvai, an artist who chose the difficulty of living freely, has earned his liberation,” his wife, actor Marzieh Vafamehr, wrote on Instagram.

Taghvai was born on July 13, 1941 in the Iranian city of Abadan.

He rose to fame following the 1972 release of his first film, “Tranquility in the Presence of Others”, a raw portrayal of the conflict between tradition and modernity in Iran.

Throughout his career, he came to be known for standing against censorship, both before and after the 1979 Islamic revolution which toppled Iran’s Western-backed shah.

In 2013, he denounced the “terrible censorship” of cinematic and literary works in his country, and declared he would no longer make films because of state control.

He directed six films, a television series and several documentaries during his career.

His satirical series, “My Uncle Napoleon,” depicts the decline of a former imperial army officer, consumed by suspicion and unable to admit that his time had passed.

Taghvai received numerous national and international film awards, including the Bronze Leopard at the Locarno Film Festival in 1988 for his movie “Captain Khorshid.”

In 2002, he was awarded the Special Jury Prize at Iran’s government-run Fajr Film Festival, but he refused to accept it.