The First Documentary on Mojtaba Khamenei: The Leader with Only One Published Video

After Mojtaba Khamenei was announced as the third Leader of the Islamic Republic, state-affiliated media unveiled the first documentary about him. The film features only a handful of photographs, presenting him as someone in “absolute obedience to his father,” Ali Khamenei, and portraying him as “living simply” and “anti-corruption.”

These portrayals of Mojtaba Khamenei come despite a February report by Bloomberg that detailed his “financial empire.” According to Bloomberg, in recent years he has developed an extensive network of real estate holdings and financial assets outside Iran. The report stated that this empire, worth billions of dollars, was constructed across Europe and the Middle East through a complex structure of shell companies and intermediaries.

The documentary opens with a shot of Mashhad, noting the time and place of Mojtaba Khamenei’s birth. It then moves to two childhood photographs, including one in which he stands beside his father, Ali Khamenei. The film goes on to show brief footage and several images of a room and a courtyard that it identifies as the house where Mojtaba Khamenei was raised.

In the documentary, which portrays Mojtaba Khamenei as closely resembling his father, his mother is mentioned only briefly, with the narration stating that her role was limited to keeping the family hearth warm. His mother, Mansoureh Khojasteh Bagherzadeh, was killed in the U.S. and Israeli attack on the Supreme Leader’s residence.

In the film, Mojtaba Khamenei is portrayed as someone who pursued knowledge from an early age, studying under well-known Shia clerics such as Ayatollah Vahid Khorasani, Mojtaba Tehrani, and Shubairi Zanjani. Notably, during these portions of the documentary, no images of Mojtaba himself are shown; instead, the visuals focus on photographs of the clerics said to have trained him.

Moving past his childhood, the narrator reaches the Iran-Iraq War, and while showing images of Mojtaba Khamenei, it is stated that he served in the war as a “simple Basiji.”

The Basij are volunteer paramilitary units. Claiming a leader was a “simple Basiji” is a standard trope used to build “revolutionary street cred.” It is meant to show that the leader suffered alongside the common people in the trenches, making him worthy of command.

In this first documentary on Mojtaba Khamenei, epic language is used to describe him. For instance, quoting Noor-Ali Shoushtari, a war commander, it is said of Mojtaba: “He would strike the [enemy] lines heroically.”

Moving beyond the war years, the documentary portrays Mojtaba Khamenei’s life in the early 1990s as that of “a teacher of a hundred schools.” It further asserts that beginning in 2004, he taught “Kharij-e Feqh” (advanced jurisprudence) for two decades and was regarded as the “professor of one of the most crowded high-level seminary classes.”

Additionally, as the documentary displays an image of Mojtaba Khamenei holding a book, the narrator states that the third Leader of the Islamic Republic is fluent in both Arabic and English and has completed specialized studies in psychology and psychoanalysis.

The narrator of the documentary says that Mojtaba Khamenei, this “ethics-oriented jurist” and “professor of human sciences,” alongside a “rare depth in religious texts,” possesses mastery and awareness in many branches of modern technology, military science, security affairs, political principles, and the executive requirements of the country: “He has explored undiscovered civilizational horizons for many years and has a rare command over the components of the country’s path of progress.”

The narrator goes on to say that Ali Khamenei believed this “path of progress” has now reached the “summit.” Referring to the new leader as “Agha Mojtaba,” the narration continues: “Agha Mojtaba, who, like his father, stands at the intersection of fortitude and resistance against the enemy on one hand, and a secure and compassionate embrace for the people on the other. And now, despite the endless grief over the martyrdom of his father, mother, and wife, he enters the arena of service to the people of the Islamic Revolution of Iran like another ‘evergreen cypress,’ so that the Era of Khomeini may be extended through the efforts of his children.”

The term “Agha” (Gentleman/Sir) is an honorific commonly reserved for the Supreme Leader. The “Evergreen Cypress” is a symbol in Persian literature representing resilience and immortality. The phrase “Era of Khomeini” points to the ideology of the 1979 Revolution, implying that despite the transfer of power to the son, the core character of the regime is intended to remain the same.

Mojtaba Khamenei’s elevation to leadership, following the killing of his father, Ali Khamenei, took place under circumstances in which no recent video or audio recording of him has been released since the war began. His wife was also killed in the U.S. and Israeli strike on the Leadership residence, and there have been conflicting reports suggesting he may have been seriously injured. Nevertheless, without any clear information about his condition after the attack on the Beit, he was formally introduced as the third Leader of the Islamic Republic, and this documentary was subsequently produced about him.