Dariush Mehrju’i  (born on 8 December 1939 in Tehran) is an Iranian director, screenwriter, producer, film editor and a member of the Iranian Academy of the Arts. Mehrjui was a founding member of the Iranian New Wave movement of the early 1970s. His second film, Gaav, is considered to be the first film of this movement, which also included Masoud Kimiai and Nasser Taqvai. Most of his films are inspired by literature and adapted from Iranian and foreign novels and plays.

I am very pleased that after 20 years “Leila” will be shown in cinema halls for the fans of the cinema. The film, which was scanned and the colors were corrected by the Laboratory of Sound and Television and the Studios in the past year and converted to a 2K quality digital version, has reappeared in Iranian and world’s cinemas, so that the enthusiasts of this field can enjoy it, and this has lots of hope in it. This will be greatly appreciated by the efforts of Art and Experience cinematic group, and I’m thankful from their management. I hope the Ministry of Culture and Guidance and cinema directors, with this approach, will bring all the manuscripts of Iranian cinematic films to a digital version of quality and do not condemn them for their preservation, because they will refer to them, and history and literature need some of these works; therefore, they are considered a kind of national capital, which must be diligent in preservation and preservation.