Mohsen Makhmalbaf

محسن مخملباف Mohsen Makhmalbāf
Born	Mohsen Makhmalbaf May 29, 1957 (1957-05-29) Tehran, Iran
Years active	1981 - present

Mohsen Makhmalbaf (Persian: محسن مخملباف, Mohsen Makhmalbaaf, born May 29, 1957) is an Iranian film director, writer, editor, and producer. During 2007 he was the president of Asian Film Academy.

Makhmalbaf's films have been widely presented in international film festivals in the past ten years. The multi-award-winning director, belongs to the new wave movement of Iranian cinema. Time magazine selected Makhmalbaf's 2001 film, Kandahar, as one of 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 and now lives in Paris. As of June 12, 2009, and following the events of the 2009 Iranian presidential election, Mohsen Makhmalbaf has claimed that he has been appointed the official spokesman of Mir-Hossein Moussavi's campaign abroad.

Career

Makhmalbaf (childhood)

Mohsen 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 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.

In 1981 he wrote the screenplay for Towjeeh directed by Manuchehr Haghaniparast. In 1982 he wrote the screenplay for Marg Deegari directed by Mohamad Reza Honarmand. He made his first film Tobeh Nosuh in 1983. Boycott is a 1985 film by Mohsen Makhmalbaf, set in pre-revolutionary Iran. The movie tells the story of a young man named Valeh (Majid Majidi) who is sentenced to death for his communist tendencies. It is widely believed that the movie is based on Makhmalbaf’s own experiences. Mohsen Makhmalbaf creates a spare and deeply affecting portrait of human despair, exploitation, and resilience in The Cyclist (1987). The movie is about Nasim, a poor Afghan refugee in Iran, who is in desperate need of money for his ailing wife. Finally Nasim agrees to ride a bicycle in a small circle for one week straight in return for the money he needs to pay his wife’s medical bills. Time of Love (1991) is Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s ninth feature film and the first film of what he calls his "third period". It is a romantic trilogy that offers three variations of the same story.

Hana, Marzieh and Mohsen Makhmalbaf, receiving the Cyclo d'Or at the Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema in 2009

Makhmalbaf directed Gabbeh in 1996. The film follows the nomadic Ghashghai people, whose bright, bold carpets tell stories. The main yarn features a young woman who loves a mysterious stranger, but is forbidden to marry him. Makhmalbaf attempts to follow the carpet idea by making his film dreamily romantic and non-realistic. Events seem 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 film makers. It quickly became a private production house for the increasing number of filmmakers in his family. In 1997 his seventeen year old daughter, Samira directed "The Apple," using him as a scriptwriter and editor. Mohsen Makhmalbaf's wife, Marziyeh Meshkini, worked as assistant director to her daughter and then took up directing herself. Kandahar (2001) is a fictional odyssey inspired by a true story. It is Makhmalbaf's look at Afghanistan before Sept. 11, as the Taliban's laws strip women of civil rights and hope, and a Western-cultured Afghan woman returns to prevent her sister's suicide during the last eclipse of the 20th century.

Filmography

Sex & Philosophy (2005)

• Boycott (1985)
• The Street Vendor (1986)
• The Bicyclist (1987)
• Dastforoush (a/k/a "The Peddler," US) (1987)
• The Marriage of the Blessed (1988)
• Time of Love (1990)
• The Nights of Zayande-rood (1990)
• Once Upon a Time, Cinema (1991)
• Actor (1993)
• Hello Cinema (1994)
• Gabbeh* (1995)
• Bread and Flower-pot (retitled A Moment of Innocence for anglophone audiences) (1995)
• The Silence (1997)
• Tales of Kish (1999)
• 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)
• Chair (2005)
• Poet of wastes (2005)
• Scream of the ants (2006)
• The Man Who Came With the Snow (2009), co-directed with Marzieh Meshkini

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

Film appearances

• 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

Books on Makhmalbaf

• Hamid Dabashi, Close Up: Iranian Cinema, Past, Present and Future. (Chapter on Makhmalbaf). Verso, 2001.
• Hamid Dabashi, Like Light from the Heart of Darkness. Sakuhinsha, Japan, 2004.
• Hamid Dabashi, Masters & Masterpieces of Iranian Cinema: (Chapter XI: Mohsen Makhmalbaf: A Moment of Innocence. pp. 325–368). Mage Publishers, 2007. ISBN 093421185X.
• Hamid Dabashi, Makhmalbaf at Large: The Making of a Rebel Filmmaker. I. B. Tauris, 2007. [http://www.ibtauris.com/display.asp?K=9781845115326&aub=Hamid%20Dabashi&m=1&dc=2

Films about Makhmalbaf

• The Closed Eyes of Mohsen
• Close up, by Abbas Kiarostami, 1990
• Friendly Persuasion: Iranian Cinema After the Revolution
• Cinema Is Nation's Language
• The Dumb Man's Dream
• Who's Who?
• Salam Cinema (German)"
• Cinema Is Nation's Language (Tadjik)"

See also

• Persian cinema
• Mohsen

External links

• Makhmalbaf Film House (Official Website of Makhmalbaf's family: Mohsen - Marzieh - Samira - Maysam - Hana)
• Mohsen Makhmalbaf at the Internet Movie Database
• Firouzan Films Iranian Movie Hall of Fame Inductee Mohsen Makhmalbaf
• Worlds Transformed: Iranian Cinema and Social Vision
• Mohsen Makhmalbaf: Retrospective by Donato Totaro (1997)