Iran's new ayatollah is a Nolan fan interested in start-ups, in-laws say

Six months into his tenure as Iran's ayatollah, Mojtaba Khamenei has given no public interviews and appeared in no new photographs, yet his late wife's family is now depicting him as a movie buff with a keen interest in start-ups.

Farideddin Haddad Adel, the brother of Zahra Haddad-Adel — killed alongside Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the 28 February US-Israel strike on the supreme leader's compound — has described his brother-in-law in interviews republished by state-aligned Iranian media.

He portrayed Mojtaba Khamenei as someone with broad interests spanning technology, start-ups, psychology, cognitive sciences and film, and said he is familiar with the work of British director Christopher Nolan.

"Unlike His Eminence (Ali Khamenei), he is not into literature, but he watches a lot of films," Haddad Adel said.

Tayyebeh Mahrouzadeh, Zahra's mother, said in comments republished by Iranian media in June that before asking for her daughter's hand, Mojtaba Khamenei had obtained a TOEFL English-language certificate and was diligent in learning foreign languages.

Living simply, dressing plainly

Haddad Adel also said his brother-in-law spent some 25 years working in security, military and political roles alongside Ali Khamenei.

He dates it back to May 1997, when reformist candidate Mohammad Khatami won the presidential election against the candidate backed by the ayatollah's office, in what became known in Iran as the start of the reform era.

Ali Khamenei and institutions under his control subsequently worked to obstruct the reformist government's legislative agenda — Khatami later said his administration faced a crisis every nine days.

The family also describes Mojtaba Khamenei as living simply, dressing plainly and sleeping little. The details are not independently verifiable.

Presenting a simple lifestyle was a recurring feature of pro-regime media coverage of Ali Khamenei throughout his decades in power, used to distance the leadership from corruption allegations and signal loyalty to the values of the 1979 revolution.

Now, Mojtaba Khamenei is intentionally presented as a cleric rooted in religious and security structures while staying in touch with modern culture — someone familiar with English, Hollywood cinema, and technology, yet not at odds with the Islamic Republic's political order.

Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, was appointed ayatollah by the Assembly of Experts on 8 March, nine days after surviving the strike that killed his father and wife. He had married Zahra Haddad-Adel in 1999.

Her father, Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel, is a prominent conservative politician who served as speaker of parliament and adviser to Ali Khamenei.