Vahid Mahdavi

Vahid Mahdavi is an Iranian filmmaker, producer and former television professional; Kayhan Life reports he was born in Isfahan in 1988. Press releases for his latest film describe him as a refugee whose background spans television, film production, editing and visual storytelling, including work for Persian-language media. Kayhan Life also credits him with writing and directing Twenty Five Years Old Portrait (2021).

In 2026 he wrote and directed 77 Hours, a Persian-language psychological thriller of about 77 minutes from the London company CVP CHAT. Set in Tehran during a crackdown on the nights of 8 and 9 January 2026, it follows a man wounded in the unrest whose hospital is then stormed by security forces, alongside a mother looking for her young daughter and a doctor facing impossible choices. The film's site credits Mahdavi as Director of AI Cinematic Workflow and describes real actors, direction and editing combined with AI-assisted tools that widen the visual world; it names no specific AI models.

The producers call it one of the first "ultra-realistic AI-hybrid" political survival features. Mahdavi told Kayhan Life the project came together quickly while the events were still fresh, drawing on eyewitness accounts, citizen journalism and dramatic reconstruction, and that it was made in the UK, since filming in Iran was impossible, with a cast largely of Iranians living abroad. A private red-carpet screening at Curzon Soho in London was announced for 10 July 2026.