Mohsen Makhmalbaf
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Mohsen Makhmalbaf (Persian: محسن مخملباف , born May 29, 1957, Tehran) is an Iranian film director, writer, editor, and producer, whose films during the last ten years have been presented in international film festivals more than 1,000 times. As of 2002 he had gained 26 international prizes. He belongs to the new wave movement of Iranian cinema.
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[edit] Career
Born into a poor family in southern Tehran, he had to work from the time he was eight years old, and before he was 17 years old, he changed his work 13 times. Before the Islamic revolution in Iran he was a political activist and because of that he was jailed for more than 4 years, and was let out of jail only after the revolution. After the revolution he abandoned politics, because he had believed that the chief problem in Iran was the cultural one. So he began writing and making films. Today he has also published 27 books, many of which have already been translated in more than ten languages. Some of his films have been shown in more than 40 countries.
During the last five years he has also taught cinema to his family members, who have already made 6 films. Marziyeh Meshkini, his wife, gained thirteen international prizes for her film, The Day I Became a Woman, and his daughter Samira received the jury's prize at the Cannes film festival in 2000. His younger daughter Hana directed her first film Joy of Madness in 2003. In 2000 Boston University awarded Makhmalbaf its Special Prize.
Makhmalbaf also founded a non-governmental organization for enabling Afghan children to go to school in Iran; by means of changes in Iranian laws due to his campaigns, he succeeded in sending tens of thousands of Afghan children to schools in Iran.
Today he lives with his family in Kabul, where he is helping to build schools and hospitals. He has also assisted an Afghan director to produce a movie. His daughter Samira has also directed a movie in Afghanistan, entitled At Five in the Afternoon.
[edit] Cinema of Mohsen Makhmalbaf
Makhmalbaf focuses on several genres, from realist films to fantasy and surrealism, from minimalism to large frescos of everyday life, with a predilection (common to Iranian directors) for the themes of childhood and cinema. [1]
[edit] Influence of Makhmalbaf on world cinema
Persian cinema in Afghanistan is slowly on the rise, after a long period of silence. Before the September 11 attacks, Makhmalbaf attracted global attention to Afghanistan with his celebrated movie, Kandahar. Kandahar was an attempt to tell the world about a forgotten country. Later on, Yassamin Maleknasr, Abolfazl Jalili, Samira Makhmalbaf and Siddiq Barmak made significant contributions to Persian cinema in Afghanistan. Siddiq Barmak is also director of the Afghan Children Education Movement (ACEM), an association that promotes literacy, culture and the arts, founded by Makhmalbaf. The school trains actors and directors for the emerging Afghan cinema.
In Tajikistan, Makhmalbaf is playing the same role as he played in the reconstruction of the cinema of post-Taliban Afghanistan. 1st Didar Film Festival, the first Film festival in Tajikistan, was held in 2004.
[edit] Filmography (written and directed by Makhmalbaf)
- Boycott (1985)
- The Street Vendor (1986)
- The Bicyclist (1987)
- The Marriage of the Blessed (1988)
- Time of Love (1990)
- The Nights of Zayande-rood (1990)
- Naser-ed-din Shah (1991)
- Actor (1993)
- Hello Cinema (1994)
- Gabbeh* (1995)
- Bread and Flower-pot (retitled Moment of Innocence for anglophone audiences) (1995)
- The Silence (1997)
- Test of Democracy (1999), with Farrokh-yar
- Kandahar (2001), brought him the Federico Fellini Prize From Unesco in Paris in 2001
- Alefbay-e afghan (2002) (The Afghan Alphabet, documentary)
- Monday Market (2004)
- Colder Than Fire (2005)
- Sex & Philosophy (2005)
[edit] Films banned in Iran
- Time of Love (1990), banned since 1990
- The Nights of Zayande-rood (1990), banned since 1990
- Bread and Flower-pot (1995), banned from 1995 until 1997
- The Silence (1997), banned from 1997 until 2000
- Naser-ed-din Shah (1991), banned from 1992 until 1993
[edit] Film appearances (playing himself)
- The Marriage of the Blessed (1988), directed by himself
- Close-up (1988), directed by Abbas Kiarostami
- Hello Cinema (1994), directed by himself
- Bread and Flower-pot (1995), directed by himself
- The Test of Democracy (1999), directed by himself and Farrokh-yar
[edit] Member of Jury
- Venice film festival (2006)
[edit] Sources
This article first appeared in the Irana Esperantisto (Iranian Esperantist): Vidi kaj ne Vidi (To See and not to See), by Wikipedia editor A.R. Mamduhi (Mamdoohi), No. 3, Year 2, Spring 2003, 32 pp., pp. 3-5. Its sources are:
- Persian book: Didan va Nadidan (To See and not to See), Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Tehran: Ney Publishing, 2002, 408 p.
- Makhmalbaf Film House
