Mohsen Makhmalbaf

Mohsen Makhmalbaf (, ) (born May 29, 1957) is an Iranian film director, writer, film editor, and producer. He has made more than 20 feature films, won 50 awards, and served as a juror in more than 15 major film festivals. His award-winning films include A Moment of Innocence (1996) and Kandahar. His latest documentary is The Gardener and latest feature The President.

Makhmalbaf's films have been widely presented at international film festivals since the early 21st century. The director belongs to the new wave movement of Iranian cinema. Time selected Makhmalbaf's 2001 film Kandahar as one of the top 100 films of all time. In 2006, he was a member of the Jury at the Venice Film Festival.

Makhmalbaf left Iran in 2005 shortly after the election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He has lived in Paris since the events of the 2009 Iranian presidential election.

Life

Makhmalbaf was born in Tehran on May 29, 1957. At the age of 15, he became involved in a militant group fighting against the rule of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran. At the age of 17, he was imprisoned for stabbing a policeman and was sentenced to death. After serving five years of his sentence, he was released in the wake of the Iranian Revolution. He left Iran in 2005.

Career Makhmalbaf is a major figure in Iranian cinema. His films have explored the relationship between the individual and a larger social and political environment. As a result, his work serves as an extended commentary on the historical progression of the Iranian state and its people. Makhmalbaf has worked in several genres, from realist films to fantasy and surrealism, minimalism, and large frescoes of everyday life, with a preference (common to Iranian directors) for the themes of childhood and cinema.

In 1981, he wrote the screenplay for Towjeeh, directed by Manuchehr Haghaniparast. In 1982, he wrote the screenplay for Marg Deegari, directed by Mohammad-Reza Honarmand. He made his first film, Tobeh Nosuh, in 1983, and Boycott, a film set in pre-revolutionary Iran, in 1985. The latter tells the story of Valeh (Majid Majidi), a young man sentenced to death for Communist tendencies. It is widely believed to be based on Makhmalbaf's own experiences.

Makhmalbaf portrays human despair, exploitation, and resilience in The Cyclist (1987), a movie about Nasim, a poor Afghan refugee in Iran in desperate need of money for his ailing wife. Nasim agrees to ride a bicycle in a small circle for one week for the money he needs to pay his wife's medical bills.

In 1989, Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami read in the newspaper about an incident in which a Tehrani man named Hossain Sabzian tricked a family into believing he was Makhmalbaf. Kiarostami adapted the case as the 1990 docufiction film Close-Up, and recruited Makhmalbaf himself to appear in the final scene of the film. Close Up is now regarded as a masterpiece of world cinema and was voted by critics onto 2012's Sight and Sound list of The Top 50 Greatest Films of All Time.

Time of Love (1991) is Makhmalbaf's ninth feature film. It is the first film of what he calls his "third period". It is a romantic trilogy that offers three variations of the same story.

Makhmalbaf directed Gabbeh in 1996. The film follows the nomadic Ghashghai people, whose bright, bold carpets tell stories. The main thread features a young woman who loves a mysterious stranger but is forbidden to marry him. The film is romantic and non-realistic, with events seeming to leap around in time and space, much like a dream.

Makhmalbaf took time off from directing in 1996 to form the Makhmalbaf Film House, a school for young filmmakers. It quickly became a private production house for the increasing number of filmmakers in his family. In 1997, his 17-year-old daughter Samira directed The Apple, using him as a scriptwriter and editor. Makhmalbaf's wife, Marzieh Meshkini, worked as an assistant director to her daughter and then took up directing herself.Bordwell, David, and Kristin Thompson, ed. Film History. 3rd. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010. 610. Print.

Kandahar (2001) is a fictional odyssey inspired by a true story set in Afghanistan before the September 11 attacks. The Taliban passed laws stripping women of civil rights and of their hopes for their futures. A Western-cultured Afghan woman returns to the country to prevent her sister's suicide during the last eclipse of the 20th century.

Early years of revolution In contrast to his later career, for about a decade after the revolution, Makhmalbaf expressed views and made films that served revolutionary art in the cultural atmosphere of Iran.

Some pre-revolutionary filmmakers note there were celebrities hurt by Makhmalbaf's positions in this period. Saeed Motalebi, an established writer and director before the revolution, is one of the people who has repeatedly recounted stories about how Makhmalbaf's stances affected pre-revolutionary stars. One of these accounts refers to the 1982 film The Imperilled (Barzakhi-ha) written by Motalebi and had four pre-revolutionary male stars in the lead roles. It was directed by Iraj Ghaderi and, with its patriotic story about resisting foreign invasion, it was a chance for Fardin, Malek-Motiei, Ghaderi and Rad to renew their threatened careers as actors in the post-revolutionary atmosphere. The film was a hit and became the highest-grossing Iranian film of all time in its short period of theater screening. But it was soon banned, and consequently the four actors were banned from working.

Motalebi says that Makhmalbaf turned people against the film and its actors: On one Friday Mr. Mohsen Makhmalbaf gathered a couple of people and they started collecting signatures for a petition which was written on a scroll, stating that "We have made a revolution while these actors are transgressors." They did it right in front of that theater in the Revolution Square near the university of Tehran. They said "Look how theaters are crowded while Friday events are deserted." That's how they stopped my film. Then a reporter who was cued to ask something about our film, went and told the then prime minister (Mir-Hossein Mousavi) "There is a film in theaters whose writer wants to convey that people who are fighting in the fronts are problematic persons." The prime minister replied, "These are leftovers of junk intellectuals who will soon go to the dustbin of history." Malek-Motiei became jobless and turned his garage into a pastry shop. Ghaderi put some rice bags in his office and became a rice dealer. Fardin opened a pastry shop too and when I visited him, I used to wait outside as long as there were no customers so that he wouldn't feel ashamed when he saw me. These were all caused by those illogical efforts, which I will never forgive.

In a 1986 letter by Makhmalbaf, he attacks such filmmakers as Dariush Mehrjui and Ali Hatami. Addressing Mohammad Beheshti Shirazi, then head of Farabi Cinema Foundation, which was Iran's main governmental film production company, Makhmalbaf says: "Two hours ago when I saw The Lodgers I was ready to attach a grenade to myself and hold Mehrjui to take both of us to the other world."

In later years, Makhmalbaf became deeply disillusioned, first by the Islamic regime, and soon after by Islamic ideology. By the early 1990s, he was one of the most outspoken critics of the government in Iran. Amir-Hossein Fardi, a writer and Makhmalbaf's former colleague, has said that Makhmalbaf has not changed and that his inalterable characteristic has been an extremist attitude, then pro-revolution, and now anti-revolution.

Political views In December 2023, together with 50 other filmmakers, Makhmalbaf signed an open letter published in Libération, demanding a ceasefire and an end to the killing of civilians amid the 2023 Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip. They asked for a humanitarian corridor into Gaza to be established for humanitarian aid, and the release of hostages.

Degrees and honors

Mohsen Makhmalbaf: Selected as the best filmmaker after the revolution by readers of cinema publications, 1988 A Moment of Innocence: Among Top Ten Films of the Decade – Awarded by International Festival Directors and Critics 1999 "Federico Fellini Honor" from UNESCO in Paris, 2001 (France) "Freedom to Create Prize" for his human rights activity and promoting social justice through his art, Art Action, England, 2009 Honorary Degree of Doctor of Cinema from Nanterre University, France, 2010 Honorary Degree of Doctor of Literature from St Andrews University, Scotland, 2011

Honours

Jury member at the 2024 Busan International Film Festival for its competition section 'BIFF Mecenat Award'.

Filmography Year English title Original title Length Notes1983Pure RepentanceTawba Nasuh100 minutes1984Two Blind EyesDo Cheshme Bisoo102 minutesSeeking RefugeIsti'azah89 minutes1986BoycottBoycott95 minutes1987The PeddlerDastforoush90 minutes1989The CyclistBicycleran83 minutesMarriage of the BlessedArousi-ye Khouban70 minutes1990The Nights of Zayande-roodShabhaye Zayandeh-rood100 minutes/63 minutes (censored)1991Time of LoveNobat e Asheghi70 minutes1992Once Upon a Time, CinemaNasseroddin Shah Actor-e Cinema92 minutes 1993Images from the Qajar PeriodTasvir Dar Doran-e Ghajar18 minutesShort documentaryThe ArtistHonarpisheh86 minutesStone and Glass Sang-o-Shisheh20 minutesShort documentary1995Hello CinemaSalaam Cinema81 minutesDocudrama1996A Moment of InnocenceNun va Goldoon78 minutesGabbeh72 minutes1997The School the Wind Blew AwayMadrese-i ke bad bord8 minutesShort1998The SilenceSokout74 minutes1999Tales of KishGhessé hayé kish72 minutesSegment The Door2000Tales of an IslandDastanhaye Jazireh76 minutesSegment Testing Democracy2001KandaharSafar-e Ghandehar85 minutesThe Afghan AlphabetAlefbay-e afghan46 minutesDocumentary2005Sex & PhilosophySex o phalsapheh102 minutes2006Scream of the AntsFaryad moorcheha85 minutesThe ChairSandali8 minutesShort2009The Man Who Came with the Snow75 minutesCo-directed with Marzieh Meshkini2012The GardenerBagheban87 minutesDocumentary2013The Endless SmileLabkhande-bi-payan52 minutesDocumentary2014The President118 minutes2015The Tenant18 minutesShort2019Marghe and Her Mother101 minutesSet in Italy

Films banned in Iran

The Nights of Zayande-rood (1990), banned since 1990 Time of Love (1991), banned since 1991 Once Upon a Time, Cinema (1992), banned from 1992 until 1993 A Moment of Innocence (1996), banned from 1996 until 1997 The Silence (1998), banned from 1998 until 2000 The Gardener (2012), banned since 2012

Film appearances Marriage of the Blessed (1989), directed by himself Close-Up (1990), directed by Abbas Kiarostami Hello Cinema (1995), directed by himself A Moment of Innocence (1996), directed by himself Tales of an Island (2000), directed by himself and Dariush Mehrjui

Mohsen Makhmalbaf

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