makhmalbaf film house
astana – “makhmalbaf film house, ” by gulnara abikeyeva, was released by the new literary review, one of russia’s top publishing houses .
for a more detailed account of the ambitions, intentions and activities of makhmalbaf film house see mohsen makhmalbaf, “ makhmalbaf film house, ”. this article is part of much larger website, run by the family, which covers all things ‘makhmalbaf. ’ though many of its articles are in persian, french or are poorly translated into english, it provides a fascinating insight into the all - encompassing nature of the family’s artistic practice (as well as their ability to publicise themselves) .
one of iran' s most famous directors, mohsen makhmalbaf emerged from seven years in jail as a political prisoner and started the makhmalbaf film school in tehran, which now includes a production unit, the makhmalbaf film house, with eight of his family members. students learn screenwriting, editing, camera, sound mix, history and analysis of film, as well as art history, photography, cooking and computer science .
mohsen makhmalbaf may have taught samira makhmalbaf how to make films, but she has taught her father to liberate a nation. (2 )
bbc four examines the makhmalbaf filmmaking phenomenon. including in - depth interviews with both samira and mohsen, the programme explores their reception inside and outside iran, samira' s success and her plans for the future. preceding the makhmalbaf film house, bbc four also presents the acclaimed blackboards. producer susan kemp a bbc production for bbc four
beirut international film festival announced :
the nights of zayandeh - rood
by mohsen makhmalbaf, which was scheduled ...
one of iran’s most influential directors, whose 17 highly regarded features include gabbeh (1997), a moment of innocence (1996), and silence (1998), makhmalbaf also founded the makhmalbaf film house as a custom - made mini - studio to nurture his family’s movie projects. under its auspices he has mentored and written screenplays for award - winning debut features directed by his daughter samira makhmalbaf (the apple, 1997, and the blackboard, 1999) and by his wife marziyeh meshkini (the day i became a woman, 2001) .
an odyssey across a treacherous mine - filled desert, the story is based on the real life predicament of 28 - year - old afghan expatriate niloufar pazira, who sought out makhmalbaf in 1997 when she received a disturbing letter from a friend in kandahar who’d had her legs blown off by a mine. pazira eventually became the leading lady in a fictionalized account of the story. in the interim makhmalbaf made a clandestine visit into afghanistan and did extensive research into united nations documents (the 47 - page essay is posted on the makhmalbaf film house website) .
i interviewed mohsen makhmalbaf at cannes, where the film’s well - received premiere earned it the ecumenical prize of the jury. niloufar pazira translated from farsi .
gulnara abikeyeva began cooperating with iron store, one of the publisher’s magazines, in 2009, when she published the article “cinema and cultural influence in central asia, ” which later became popular in the internet. the same year, the kazakh critic and new literary review concluded a contract on the book, “makhmalbaf film house, ” for its cinematic series .
then came september 11, and afghanistan was thrown into the spotlight. ironically, considering that time magazine chose new york’s ex - mayor rudy giuliani over osama bin laden as the person who most influenced events of 2001, kandahar heads time ’s list of the ten best films of the year. it has been screened at the white house—rare for a subtitled art - house film—been distributed in at least 40 countries and outperformed moulin rouge at box offices in france and italy .
36. « clermont - ferrand medallion », the city medallion granted to the legendary mohsen makhmalbaf, france, 2006 .
30. the afghan alphabet: »best film award »from document art international film festival, (germany) 2002 .
46. the day i became a woman: the best asian film from pusan international film festival. korea. 2000
featuring interviews with steven holl, stephen mueller, janet cardiff, laurie sheck, cornelius eady, victor pelevin, mohsen makhmalbaf, bill frisell .
45. the day i became a woman: the gold plaque for best first film from chicago international film festival. usa. 2000
meshkini, who was born in tehran, describes her family as
simple .
yet she was not raised like the eve of her film. she studied geology and biology at the university before joining the makhmalbaf clan .
“i met with mohsen makhmalbaf in 2005 in dushanbe at the didor film festival, where we both were members of the jury, ” abikeyeva said. “in 2007, as part of the eurasia film festival, we held a major retrospective of his films and the films of his family members. ”
92. buddha collapsed out of shame: « best film fipresci award », 11th flying broom international women’s film festival ankara, turkey, 2008 .
meshkini, 30, is a sister of makhmalbaf' s deceased wife, and the aunt of samira makhmalbaf, who won the director' s prize in cannes for
blackboards ,
written by her father. meshkini worked as assistant director on samira' s
blackboards
and
the apple
and on mohsen makhmalbaf' s
silence
and
the door .
my love for making films is part of my love of life and my love for mohsen and samira ,
she said .
to make the movie her way, the director did not go through the usual channels .
i didn' t get the government permit. if you get permits, you can get film and a camera cheap. i couldn' t wait, and preferred to make the movie myself .
that is, with the makhmalbaf film house, which has been turning out prizewinning films .
of course there are differences between our films. each has his or her own style. my point of view on women' s problems is because i am a woman; it' s soft, spiritual. a woman can better understand other women .
in 1998, he went to tajikistan to make the silence, about a 10 - year - old blind boy supporting himself and his mother by tuning stringed instruments. he also helped his 18 - year - old daughter, samira, make her film debut the apple, a documentary - style fact - based tale about two teenage sisters confined in their house by their blind mother and destitute father .
2. the cyclist: best film – rimini festival (italy) 1989 .
3. the cyclist: best film – hawaii festival (usa) 1991 .
10. salam cinema: best film – munich festival (germany) 1996 .
11. gabbeh: best artistic film – tokyo festival (japan) 1996 .
15. gabbeh: best asian feature film – singapore festival (singapore) 1997 .
58. the apple: « sutherland trophy », london film festival 1998, uk .
future learning and skills – giving everyone the opportunity to build a lifelong relationship with film .
mohsen makhmalbaf became a writer and filmmaker of the post - revolutionary iran. his literary activities included research into the arts, novels, short stories and screenplays that were published in more than 20 books .
31. the 2003 asian filmmaker award from pusan film festival, (south korea) 2003 .
59. the apple: « international critics prize », locarno film festival 1998, switzerland .
60. the apple: « jury’s special prize », thessalonica film festival 1998, greece .
91. buddha collapsed out of shame: « eni windows on the world prize » for the best feature film, african asian and latin american film festival of milan, italy, 2008 .
founded in 1999, senses of cinema is one of the first online film journals of its kind and has set the standard for professional, high quality film - related content on the internet .
41. the day i became a woman: prize to the best first feature film assigned by the young jury of cinemavenire from 15th. international week of film critics, venice. italy. 2000
“later, mohsen makhmalbaf, author of the script for ‘paradise for mother, ’ arrived in almaty to negotiate work on the picture. understanding the scale of this outstanding personality, i recorded our conversations and interviews… that’s how the idea of this book was born. it includes not only reviews of the films, but also three scenarios, four articles by mohsen makhmalbaf and two interviews with him that share the secrets of his art. ”
in fact, mohsen makhmalbaf' s film - making is not social realism, but rather involves a self - conscious analysis of how film - making affects people' s lives. his quasi - documentary a moment of innocence (1995) is cinema as public reconciliation, a coming - to - terms with the man he once stabbed, in which the policeman himself is encouraged to direct his own version of events .
4. once upon a time, cinema: best film – taormina festival (italy) 1992 .
28. collection of works: « francois truffaut prize », giffoni film festival in italy 2002 .
61. the apple: « jury’s special prize », sao paulo film festival 1998, brazil .
67. the black board: « francois truffaut prize », giffoni film festival in italy 2000 .
79. joy of madness: the youngest filmmaker on the world from venice international film festival 2003 .
5. once upon a time, cinema: best film – karlovy vary festival (czechoslovakia) 1992 .
68. the black board: « giffoni’s mayor prize «, giffoni film festival, italy, 2000 .
the revolution that freed him from prison also unleashed his creative energies. he turned to writing novels and stage plays, and in 1982 made his first film, nasouh repentance, about a bank clerk who seeks true repentance while facing death. this was the first in a trilogy of highly didactic films with strong religious themes and poor cinematic quality. in fact, making the trilogy also provided makhmalbaf with his basic film training. his fourth film, boycott (1985), set in a prison for political activists of different convictions, continued to glorify islamic values .
80. joy of madness: special mention award from associazione cultrale le tre ghinee in venice film festival 2003 .
81. joy of madness: the special jury prize in the 4th international film festival of tokyo filmex 2003 .
87. buddha collapsed out of shame: « discovery prize », sarlat film festival, france, 2007 .
88. buddha collapsed out of shame: « crystal bear », berlin film festival, germany, 2008 .
95 - buddha collapsed out of shame: « silver mirror » the south film festival, norway, 2008 .
it’s a miracle you were physically able to make this film in 1999 given the taliban control of the region .
since cannes last year, samira has been graciously telling interviewers that hana' s film is better than hers, that it' s more revealing about afghanistan. for her part, hana - in an interview posted on the makhmalbaf family website - is keen to emphasise that joy of madness is not just a promotional sidebar for at five in the afternoon. her own film, she says ,
is apparently about samira looking for actors in kabul but it is an independent film about four people in afghanistan .
she sees joy of madness as being
about the fear of a society .
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44. the day i became a woman: the volkswagen discovery award from toronto international film festival. canada. 2000
51. the day i became a woman: best director award from thesaloniki international film festival, greece. 2000 .
65. the black board: « jury’s prize », official competition section of cannes film festival 2000, france .
84. buddha collapsed out of shame: unicef « paolo ungari » special award, rome international film festival 2007 .
89. buddha collapsed out of shame: « special peace award », berlin film festival, germany, 2008 .
96 - buddha collapsed out of shame: « golden deer » the 38th molodist film festival, ukraine, 2008 .
98 - buddha collapsed out of shame: « ecumenical jury » the 38th molodist film festival, ukraine, 2008 .
under the chador
the day i became a woman * * * a must - see directed by marzieh meshkini written by mohsen makhmalbaf with fatemeh cheragh akhtar, hassan nabehan, shabnam toloui, cyrus kahouri nejad, azizeh seddighi, and badr irouni nejad .
with humanitarian rather than political aims, mohsen makhmalbaf’s kandahar (2001) was intended to focus on the plight of women in afghanistan under a brutal oppressive regime and on the pervasive misery caused by civil strife and war between the soviets and the us - backed mujehadeen .
6. once upon a time, cinema: best film – fiprachi critics – karlovy vary festival (czechoslovakia) 1992 .
53. the day i became a woman: cine tirol verleiher preis from innsbruck international film festival, austria, 2001 .
86. buddha collapsed out of shame: « woman & equality award », thessaloniki film festival, greece, 2007 .
bomb magazine has been publishing conversations between artists of all disciplines since 1981. bomb’s founders—new york city artists and writers—decided to publish dialogues that reflected the way practitioners spoke about their work among themselves. today, bomb is a nonprofit, multi - platform publishing house that creates, disseminates, and preserves artist - generated content from interviews to artists’ essays to new literature. bomb includes a quarterly print magazine, a daily online publication, and a digital archive of its previously published content from 1981 onward .
76. two legged - horse: the special jury prize from the 56th san sebastian international film festival, spain, 2008 .
94 - buddha collapsed out of shame: « founders prize », the 4th traverse city film festival, usa, 2008 .
mohsen makhmalbaf i’ve never, in any of my films before, been touched by such a deep tragedy, a pain that’s burning inside me about the subject. the whole world is concerned about the destruction of the buddhas but no one is paying attention to the problems of afghanistan .
71. at five in the afternoon: « jury special award », official competition section of cannes film festival 2003, france .
82. buddha collapsed out of shame: the special jury prize from the 55th san sebastian international film festival, spain, 2007 .
93. buddha collapsed out of shame: « special jury prize », 14th international film festival of cinema author, morocco, 2008 .
liza bear mr. makhmalbaf, when we spoke at cannes in may, kandahar was, for most people, barely a point on the map. since october 7, afghanistan has been in the headlines every day. what was your first reaction to september 11 and to the start of bombing in afghanistan ?
you imagine that whenever a child is born into the makhmalbaf family, the infant is expected to present its showreel before its umbilical is cut. how did this clan come to be so precocious? by design, it seems. mohsen makhmalbaf has said that he one day decided ,
instead of creating films, i was going to create film - makers .
the decisive moment seems to have been samira' s decision to leave school at 14, tired of
cliché
.
i hate any kind of cliché ,
she says vehemently .
i hated school because they tried to just give you answers, answers, answers and not let you experience or ask questions or see differently. anyhow, i tried to flee from it .
by all accounts, the school offers a rigorous and eclectic curriculum, not just film but
equal parts life and art
, as mohsen puts it: everything from cycling, swimming and skating (
a film - maker needs to be physically strong
) to cooking, computer science and languages, quite apart from the range of conventional filmic skills. the method involves focusing on a single subject every month for eight hours a day, on a principle of strict immersion; as hana put it ,
if school of makhmalbaf has one principle, that is the principle of concentration .
83. buddha collapsed out of shame: the tve award « la otra mirada » by spanish tv, san sebastian international film festival 2007 .
97 - buddha collapsed out of shame: « cine - club » (ficc jury) the 38th molodist film festival, ukraine, 2008 .
the makhmalbaf family' s production - line app - roach to film education is surely without a contemporary equivalent. fearful of charges of nepotism, members of prominent hollywood dynasties tend to channel their energies into distancing themselves from one another rather than into collaboration. (imagine the cynical response if sofia coppola accepted as much open help and endorsement from her father as samira does .) perhaps claude chab - rol' s repeated inclusion of family members within his creative workforce provides the closest parallel, though no other chabrol has established an independent reputation let alone become a fixture on the red carpets of international film festivals .
hana, meanwhile, found her gender and youth an advantage when shooting joy of madness .
i had a better situation than my father. if my father goes to a house, all the people are angry because he' s a man, and he' s big. because i was a young girl, they didn' t take me seriously; i was just a kid with a camera .
though she insists that
i was making a film thro - ugh my own point of view; if somebody else made this film, it would be totally different
, she' s aware of the advantages she inherited along with the family name :
i was born into a family with a great love of cinema. all the time, even when we were going to sleep, our father was speaking about cinema, and teaching all the time, teaching everybody .
with 14 feature film, 3 short films, 28 books and 22 film editings, i was the most active iranian filmmaker at that time. my mind was full of ideas, and my heart bursting from the thrill of creation. having just finished making « a moment of innocence », my favorite film, i stopped working and spent four years on teaching the arts of cinema. instead of creating films, i was going to create filmmakers .
makhmalbaf became a controversial figure when the two films he made in 1991, a time of love and the nights of the zayandeh - rood, were banned for dealing with physical love and raising doubts about the revolution. the same fundamentalist groups that had championed him earlier as a truly devout islamic filmmaker began to turn increasingly against him .
two of his recent films, a moment of innocence (bread and the vase) and gabbeh, also were kept from distribution in iran after their initial screenings in the 1996 fajr film festival, an annual showcase for domestic films. gabbeh, a captivatingly lyrical saga of a woman and her romantic longing in a nomadic setting, was released domestically only after its successful festival run and a string of european openings, but a moment of innocence, a thought - provoking essay about the nature of truth, remained shelved for two additional years. the film recalls a traumatic chapter in makhmalbaf' s youth that led to his imprisonment for stabbing a policeman .
the peddler (1987), a film that brought makhmalbaf international attention, was the first turning point in a career full of twists and turns. in this moving three - episode film about a society caught in a web of moral and social decline, as well as in several subsequent films, mahkmalbaf began to seriously question the values he had dearly espoused in his earlier films. the cyclist (1989) traces the plight of a poor afghan man forced to ride his bicycle continuously for a week to raise money for his ailing wife' s treatment. marriage of the blessed (1990) is about a bitterly disillusioned war veteran on the verge of mental breakdown .
47. the day i became a woman: the prize of the international film critics (fipresci prize) from films from the south festival. norway. 2000
ohsen makhmalbaf was born in a poor neighborhood in southern tehran in 1957. while still an adolescent, he dropped out of school to form an islamic militant group and join the clandestine fight against the shah' s regime. he was arrested when he was only 17, and was serving a five - year sentence when the 1979 revolution brought an islamic regime to power .
( corinth films) premieres one of best iranian movies yet seen. its story of a despot (mikheil gomiashvili) caught in the midst of a revolution, who escapes his country’s futuristically designed capital city to traverse the underdeveloped countryside with his cosseted grandson (dachi orvelashvili) in tow, surprises all anti - fascist expectations. makhmalbaf looks at brotherhood by satirizing the highhanded excesses of nationhood .
42. the day i became a woman: prize isvema of 100, 000, 000 italian lira of commercial promotion on the private televisions associated with isvema itself, assigned by the jury of the national syndicate of italian film critics, for its: « poetical representation of woman condition in nowadays iranian society » from 15th. international week of film critics, venice. italy. 2000
i understand you are shooting a film in the afghan refugee camps in iran. was this an immediate reaction to the bombing, and how were you able to pull it together so quickly ?
the soft - spoken meshkini is the second wife of mohsen makhmalbaf, who wrote the screenplay .
the idea of eve came from a talk i had with mohsen one day when we were walking down the street, but the dialogues belong to me. i wanted to make a movie about the problems of young girls because in the islamic religion, people think that a 9 - year - old is ready to marry .
and while mohsen makhmalbaf has long been something of a popular hero in iran, samira is now by far the most prominent family member abroad. she is a skilled and self - possessed media operator, a glamorous figurehead not only for young iranian cinema, but also - whether or not she intends to be - for young islamic women. already a seasoned veteran of the festival press conference circuit (maysam' s film features copious footage of her no - nonsense approach at cannes), samira packages herself with assured style: conducting interviews in accomplished english, she repeatedly flicks her hijab with long manicured fingers, giving this regulation covering a touch of disarming chic .
beyond its acute relevance to contemporary viewers, aesthetically kandahar transcends the plight of individuals, and, like gabbeh, makhmalbaf’s magical tale of carpet weavers, works poetically: it achieves a wrenching emotional impact mostly by surreal images that evoke the permanent results of violence, such as mutilation, rather than through violence itself. one unforgettable image consists of parachutes dangling artificial limbs high above a group of men on crutches down below, running in a three - legged race to retrieve them .
like her father, samira sees her own role as a film - maker as both inspirational and pedagogic .
because i had a better situation, better opportunities, compared to other women, i always feel a responsibility for these women. i think i have to do something .
and perhaps she has succeeded: certainly it' s notable that of the significant iranian films released since the apple, jafar panahi' s _ the circle (2000), makhmalbaf' s kandahar and kiarostami' s ten (2002) focus almost exclusively on female experience. indeed, there' s a case to be made that it is male characters who now seem' veiled' and ambiguous in iranian cinema .
born and raised in a poor tehran neighborhood, makhmalbaf’s early life was fraught with hardship and traumatic events. he worked from the age of eight to support his family. at 17 he joined an anti - shah movement. following an incident in which he was shot at and wounded by a policeman, he was hospitalized for 100 days after being tortured by members of savak, the shah’s secret police, several of whom received political asylum in the united states and are still at large .
it' s tough being a film - maker in iran, says jonathan romney. so it' s all the more remarkable that the makhmalbafs - including 14 - year - old hana - have turned it into a family business
kiarostami’s latest film, 10 (2002), appears to be a deliberate attempt to rethink the predominantly masculinist concerns of many of his previous films. the film, shot on digital video, consists of ten scenes focusing either on the driver or passenger of a car driving around contemporary teheran, a number of them concentrating on female characters. for a more detailed account see geoff andrew, “ drive, he said, ” sight and sound (october 2002 )
mohsen makhmalbaf like everyone else, my reaction to september 11 was one of horror and disbelief. and to october 7 was deep sadness that from one human tragedy we are moving to a human catastrophe. what did the americans achieve with the death and destruction they brought to afghanistan? thousands more dead, hundreds of thousands more in danger of starvation, millions more forced into refugee camps. is that the way to combat terrorism? the root causes of terrorism are poverty and illiteracy, neither of which can be cured by bombing people .
nasseredin shah, the movie actor (once upon a time, the cinema - 1992), an affectionate look at the history of iranian cinema, and the actor (1993), an uneven comedy about a childless couple, revealed the lighter side of makhmalbaf' s creative character. but it didn' t take him long to go back to his penetrating explorations of social realities in the disturbingly self - reflexive salam cinema (1994) - the cinema verite - style account of an audition that turns into a meditation on the corruption of power .
afghanistan and iran share a 500 - mile undefined frontier and there are maybe two - and - a - half million afghan refugees living in iran. but only about 50 thousand of those have any kind of identification. that’s where we made the film .
meanwhile, samira carries a responsibility that few film - makers have to contend with, partly by virtue of her youth, partly by virtue of being the only young female director from an islamic country to achieve international fame - and who knows how many or how few will follow her .
she knows she has become a figurehead, and seems willing to live with it .
i didn' t try to be a symbol, i didn' t think,' i' m a woman and i' m young.' i just wanted to make films. but it happened that i was a symbol for something. it' s bad because we don' t have so many women film - makers, so many young film - makers, so it seems i was one of the first persons breaking the cliché. but it' s good, because when you break the cliché, some other people come. we need one person to do something, then after, it' s easy. at the same time ...
she breaks off and sighs wistfully ,
i like feeling responsibility about a thing .
arguably more than anyone else in world cinema, samira makhmalbaf embodies a new spirit, which may yet have its day. watching her severe yet joyous films, and seeing her determined command of the media, you can' t help but feel that tomorrow belongs to her. or if not to her, then to others like her and her sister, yet to emerge .
i myself had to grow a longer beard and wear afghan clothes for camouflage. still, at one point i was in danger of being kidnapped; i haven’t discovered whether it was the opium smugglers or some other group. but it forced us to move a little further from the border to finish the film .
in addition to making some 20 films and writing as many novels, you’ve also helped all the women in your family, and your son, realize themselves creatively. and now you’ve made a film about the fate of afghan women who don’t have one zillionth percent of the freedom. i find it quite moving .
43. the day i became a woman: prize cict - unesco of the international council of cinema and television within unesco has awarded its prize for the following motivation: « for its honesty and for the quality of vision on the woman condition in iran » from 15th. international week of film critics, venice. italy. 2000
samira emerges as altogether ruthless about getting what and who she wants for her film, not always likeably. even so, hana seemed to be under no restrictions from her sister as to what she could or couldn' t show. at one point, in fact, samira tells hana to stop shooting; she simply ignores her .
samira first visited afghanistan at the age of eight, when she acted in her father' s film the cyclist. she returned with mohsen in 2001, when he made kandahar, the first feature to convey a vivid sense of the reality both of taliban rule and of landmines. samira made her new film, she says, out of a sense of a responsibility to the afghan people .
they didn' t have any person to feel responsible about them - they didn' t have anybody to talk deeply, to go there, see the reality. i feel i love the people - in a way, we have the same language, the same culture .
our curriculum was not limited to cinema, it also included parts life and art. for example in sports, it consisted of cycling, swimming and skating. a filmmaker needs to be physically strong. from everyday life, we instructed on driving, traveling alone outside the country, urban navigation, cooking, computer science, and foreign language, as a filmmaker needs methods of communication. the following were subjects were also included: from other arts, an introduction to painting, photography, poetry and music, and from cinema, film economics, production programming, screenplay writing, acting, camera operation (filming), editing, sound mix, decoupage, history of cinema, and film analysis .
samira’s films present a consistently exacting and rigorous approach to situations, characters, real events, society, and the way each is viewed. this seems to be a quality which, initially, distinguishes between the work of mohsen and samira. as several critics such as robin wood have pointed out, mohsen makhmalbaf’s career is very difficult to summarise due to its periodic shifts in tone, approach, social and even political orientation, from fundamentalism to humanism, self - consciousness to allegory. (8) samira’s two feature films are more unified in approach, casting an almost anthropological eye over the border regions and practices of iranian society, exploring the domestic spaces of suburban teheran (the apple) and the mountain passes of iranian kurdistan, near the border with iraq (blackboards) .
armed with a letter, a tape recorder and a fistful of american dollars, the film’s english - speaking nafas (pazira) deplanes from a red cross helicopter and dons a burkha. as a single woman in taliban - controlled territory, male traveling companions are de rigueur though unreliable. she persuades a household traveling to kandahar to take her on as a fourth wife .
liza béar very few people realize that afghanistan used to be part of iran 250 years ago. you already made one film in afghanistan, the cyclist (1988), about an afghan refugee who gets tricked by a con man. what made you want to return to the subject of afghanistan, or rather what prepared you, in your own life, to enter such a highly charged political situation ?
samira' s 1998 debut, the apple, was a quasi - documentary about two young tehran girls who had been effectively imprisoned at home for 12 years by their impoverished parents; in semi - fictional form, the film showed the sisters' first exposure to the world and was widely read as a protest against fundamentalist patriarchy. blackboards, the follow - up, followed two itinerant teachers through an arresting, austere mountainous region of iranian kurdistan .
of course it was based on what i had seen and knew. what i had previously observed were meals being dropped by parachute, not legs. but whenever i’m making a film, i leave a window open to thought and to what the wind will blow in, whether it’s an idea or some interference from reality. sometimes one sentence spoken on the set was so profound and so much better than prewritten dialogue that i would use it instead .
the idea was to show what a woman' s life is like at three different periods — childhood, young womanhood and old age ,
meshkini said .
in traditional communities, girls are considered adults at the age of 9; the child needs to be free, she can' t bend to the laws. i call the girl in the first part of the film havva, which means eve, because of the temptation of the apple .
samira herself is quietly scathing about the awed fascination that has greeted her entrance on to the international stage .
they say,' you are young', so i would have to be old.' you are a woman', so i would have to be a man.' you' re from iran', so i would have to be from somewhere else. and some people told me,' you' re very small.' so i would have to be a fat old man to make a movie !
yet while the previous generation of iranian directors had to wait for the world to catch up before they were fêted outside their own country, samira' s canonisation is happening before our very eyes, with her image and status being deconstructed even as they are formed. it' s a set of attitudes that was hinted at in kiarostami' s close - up (1989), which relates in semi - documentary style the real - life case of a mohsen makhmalbaf fan arrested for impersonating his hero .
thessaloniki, greece— some day, the western eye may be sated with the sheer beauty and simplicity of iranian cinema — messages planted like signposts in the landscape: children racing after balloons, old men bearing blackboards on their backs. but not yet, and not in thessaloniki, the greek harbor where festival audiences applauded marziyeh meshkini' s first film ,
roozi khe zan shodam
( the day i became a woman), and the jury awarded her the prize for best director .
the day i became a woman
is a look at three women buffeted by tradition. a gentle look. jafar panahi' s
the circle ,
a film about women who leave prison to find themselves enclosed in yet another kind of prison, is far less gentle. if you say this to meshkini, she smiles and says ,
most women in iran understand what they are up against, what they look like on the street is not how they are at home .
. i made it for unesco as part of a global campaign i wish to mobilize to address the question of educating the young afghan kids. i will premiere it on january 14 in paris at unesco. i shot it in zahedan and zabol, two border towns near afghanistan. when you see this film, you understand that the root cause of terrorism is the economic and cultural condition of a people. you cannot drop bombs on people and kill their loved ones and expect them to behave other than violently toward you .
in her film, which was shot in the gulf, the second episode, entitled
ahoo
( deer), opens on a herd of running deer. ahoo, a young woman draped in black, is biking along the rocky beach road, racing against a herd of women cyclists .
i wanted to show a girl — it could be eve again — who has lost her freedom. she rides a bike to get free because biking is forbidden for women. don' t ask me why, i don' t know why .
that sense of fear - at least, of understandable caution - is visible in joy of madness, which records samira' s attempt to cast actors for at five in the afternoon. not surprisingly in a country where images were so long proscribed, people were none too sure what was involved in the idea of appearing in a film; hana' s footage follows her sister' s negotiations with prospective actors, watching as various interviewees say yes or no, repeatedly change their minds, or cautiously warm to samira' s sometimes charming, sometimes downright ferocious approach .
by contrast to these films' authoritative concision, their follow - up, at five in the afternoon, feels more diffuse and tentative, a set of powerful images and arguments in search of cohesion. even so, it' s samira' s most ambitious and most direct statement. she shot it in and around kabul using non - professional actors to ponder afghanistan' s post - taliban future and to ask whether afghan women will definitively emerge from under the burka to take power. the film begins at a secular school for girls, where the assembled pupils debate whether an afghan woman can ever become a benazir bhutto or an indira gandhi .
hana' s documentary, joy of madness, shows samira in afghanistan leading a discussion about female presidency, much like the one in her film. you wonder what afghan women must have made of such a confident foreign woman, given their own years as effective outlaws in their own land .
i imagined i was going to see very backward women ,
samira says ,
but they were very powerful, and they were changing a lot .
nevertheless, she was aware of seeing the residue of a culture of fear and, at first, much anxiety that the old order might return .
it' s better now, they don' t think so much about taliban coming back, but women are afraid of doing something because of the tradition .
unlike abbas kiarostami, who has seldom featured substantial roles for women in his films, mohsen has intermittently placed his female characters centre stage. (9) for example, the central figure in gabbeh (1996) and many of the women auditioned in salaam cinema (1995) represent forceful, resilient, if sometimes frustrating female characters. his recent film, kandahar (2001), features his strongest and most socially critical female figure, a character who also drives the plot forward. one can sense that the experience of working closely with the female members of his family on women - centred films has given mohsen’s films a greater urgency in terms of their willingness to address questions and problems of gender (10). in this respect, one can perhaps see the reverse influence of mohsen’s wife and daughter on his filmmaking practice .
in year 2001, he released kandahar, which captured the attention of the world after september 11 terrorist attack on world trade center in new york .
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“aren’t you afraid? ” some of my stateside friends asked before i visited iran for the first time last february. “only of american bombs, ” i replied. notwithstanding all of the things that are currently illegal there — such as men and women shaking hands or riding in the same sections of buses — i’m not sure i’ve ever been anyplace where people display more social sophistication in terms of hospitality, everyday courtesy, or sheer enterprise in the use of charm and persistence to get what they want. some of this character... read more
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the school lasted 8 hours a day, which sometimes extended to as long as 16 hours. the oldest student was one of my friends who later filmed « the apple » and « the door ». the youngest one was hana, my eight year old daughter .
1. the prize of museum of fine arts, boston, usa 2000 for the presentation of the first ilex prize for excellence and innovation in cinema .
7. once upon a time, cinema: best director – karlovy vary festival (czechoslovakia) 1992 .
8. once upon a time, cinema: special jury prize – istanbul festival (turkey) 1993 .
9. collection of works: press award – sao paulo festival (brazil) 1995 .
12. gabbeh: one of 10 selected films by critics – times (usa) 1996 .
14. gabbeh: special critics award – sitguess festival (spain) 1996 .
16. a moment of innocence: special jury award – locarno festival (switzerland) 1996 .
17. a moment of innocence: youth golden award – locarno festival (switzerland) 1996 .
18. a moment of innocence: among top ten films of the decade – awarded by international festival directors and critics 1999 .
19. silence: golden prize of italian parliament – venice festival (italy) 1997 .
21. silence: human, art and nature award – venice festival (italy) 1997 .
48. the day i became a woman: special jury award from festival des trois continents (nantes) france, 2000 .
62. the apple: « jury’s special prize », independent cinema festival 1999, argentina .
63. the apple: « critic’s prize », independent cinema festival 1999, argentina .
64. the apple: »audience’s prize », independent cinema festival 1999, argentina .
66. the black board: « federico fillini honor », unesco, paris, 2000 .
69. the black board: « special cultural prize », unesco, paris, 2000 .
72. at five in the afternoon: « grand prize from society of churches of world », cannes 2003, france .
75. samira as one of the forty best directors of the world, chosen by guardien, uk, 2004 - 2005 .
77. »georges delerue award » for two legged horse best music in belgium. ghent 2008 .
85. buddha collapsed out of shame: « daniel langlois innovation prize », festival du nouveau cinéma in montreal 2007 .
90. buddha collapsed out of shame: « special award », association club de las 25, spain, 2008 .
qui sommes - nous? : africultures documente et critique les expressions artistiques contemporaines de l’afrique et de sa diaspora, ainsi que les initiatives culturelles et citoyennes ayant un rapport avec l’afrique et sa diaspora. africultures se décline en un site, une revue et un magazine .
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styles of substance: the extraordinary image: orson welles, alfred hitchcock, stanley kubrick, and the reimagining of cinema, by robert p. kolker
five years ago, while i had been the most prolific iranian filmmaker, with 14 feature films, 3 shorts, 28 books, and 22 editing credits over a 14 - year career, i stopped making films and decided to make filmmakers. (1 )
in general, when discussing contemporary iranian cinema, it is necessary to foreground the cross - fertilisation process which marks many films; whether they are films about films or other filmmakers, or works providing a different angle on a familiar region or topic. when discussing the key influences on the work of both samira and meshkini, it is important not to simply isolate iranian antecedents, but recognise specific shared concerns and aesthetic preoccupations in certain non - iranian films (for example, the work of a georgian director sergei paradjanov can be seen to have influenced both mohsen and meshkini). it is also important to recognise the connections between samira and meshkini’s work and the groundbreaking films of iranian female directors such as forough farrokhzad, rakshan bani - etemad and tahmineh milani .
there have been a few relatively successful wife and husband filmmaking ‘teams’ such as maya deren and alexander hammid, agnes varda and jacques demy, yulia solntseva and alexander dovzhenko, larisa shepitko and elem klimov, but they seldom worked together in any substantive fashion .
see, for example: sheila johnston, “quietly ruling the roost, ” sight and sound, 9. 1, ns (january 1999): 18; john mount, “the apple, ” sight and sound, 9. 1, ns (january 1999): 41; and robin wood, “the apple, ” cineaction, 48 (december 1998): 57 - 8
testing democracy, a short made for the portmanteau feature stories of the island (2000), also formed the acknowledged story blueprint for secret ballot (babak payami, 2001) .
these consistent stylistic qualities have led many western critics to compare specific iranian films and filmmakers to their modernist, and even postmodernist, counterparts elsewhere. though such an approach recognises that iranian films are not made in a nationalist cultural vacuum, it nevertheless distorts the meaning and origins of specific aesthetic devices and choices. for a useful discussion of the perils of predominantly ‘exterior’ readings of iranian cinema see godfrey cheshire, “how to read kiarostami, ” cineaste, 25. 4 (2000): 8 - 15
for a discussion of this division between the exterior and interior, social and inner self, in iranian cinema and a more general iranian culture see hamid naficy, life and art in new iranian cinema, ed. rose issa and sheila whitaker (london: bfi, 1999) 48 - 53
jonathan romney, “blackboards, ” sight and sound, 11. 1, ns (january 2001): 42
adrian danks is director of higher degree research in the school of media and communication, rmit university. he is also co - curator of the melbourne cinémathèque and was an editor of senses of cinema from 2000 to 2014. he has published hundreds of articles on various aspects of cinema and is the editor of a companion to robert altman (wiley - blackwell, 2015) .
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makhmalbaf film house is a film production company started by mohsen makhmalbaf and his family in iran . the production company , which comprises all his family members , continues to produce films from the united kingdom . their latest production was the gardener distributed by kdk factory . a number of books have been written about this production company and their importance in world cinema . the production house has produced more than 20 films in the past few decades . 
makhmalbaf film house is a film production company started by mohsen makhmalbaf and his family in iran. the production company, which comprises all his family members, continues to produce films from the united kingdom. their latest production was the gardener distributed by kdk factory. a number of books have been written about this production company and their importance in world cinema. the production house has produced more than 20 films in the past few decades.
makhmalbaf film house is a film production company started by mohsen makhmalbaf and his family in iran. the production company, which comprises all his family members, continues to produce films from the united kingdom. their latest production was the gardener distributed by kdk factory. a number of books have been written about this production company and their importance in world cinema. the production house has produced more than 20 films in the past few decades.