Website and promotion Alborz, we climb mountains

I am Maryam Sepehri, award-winning documentary filmmaker. This is the story of Alborz Highschool, a renowned school that was run by Dr. Mojtahedi for many years from the 1950s to the 1970s. Graduates of this school went on to modernize Iran and many became top names in their professions. I wanted to tell the story of this amazing school because its history is intertwined with the history of Iran during the decades before the 1979 Revolution.

American College of Tehran was initially founded by the American Presbyterian missionaries and was transformed to one of the best highschools in Iran by Dr. Mojtahedi.

Alborz: We Climb Mountains (2023, 86 mins.), tells the story of the school during many tumultuous years in Iran’s modern history, from the perspectives of its graduates, teachers, and even Dr. Mojtahedi’s own voice from archival recordings; it tells it with humor, fondness, and nostalgia for a bygone era. It exemplifies what has been lost in the years since the 1979 Revolution and why today so many among the bright and promising young Iranians sound critical of current policies and administrative mishandling of one of their country's once top educational institutions.