Mohsen Makhmalbaf

Mohsen Makhmalbaf (in Persian:محسن مخملباف; born May 29, 1957) is a film director and writer from Iran, whose films during the last ten years were presented in the international film festivals more than 1,000 times. As of 2002 he had gained 26 international prizes.

He was born in a poor family in southern Tehran. He had to work since he was only eight years old and until 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 could get out of the jail only when the revolution happened. After the revolution he abandoned the politics, because he already believed that the chief problem in Iran is the cultural one. So he began writing and making films. Until now he has published 27 books many of which have already been translated in more than ten languages. Some of his films has been shown in more than 40 countries.

During the last five years he has also taught cinema i.a. to his family members, who have already made 6 films. As an example, Marziyeh Meshkini , his wife, could gain thirteen international prizes for her film called The Day I Became a Woman . And his daughter, Samira succeeded to gain the jurry's prize in Cannes film festival in France, 2000. For his productive instructing method, The University of Boston in the USA gave him its Special Prize in the year 2000.

Makhmalbaf also founded a non-governmental organization for enabling Afgan children to go to school in Iran and by means of changes in Iranian laws because of his campaigns, he succeeded to send 10,000-s of immigrated Afghan children, to schools in Iran. Now he with his family lives in Kabul, the capital city of Afghanistan. He is helping to build schools and hospitals there and also helps an afghan director in producing a movie. Also Samira has directed a movie over there called .

His films (written and directed by him)

• Boycott (1985)
• The Street Vendor (1986)
• The Bicyclist (1987)
• The Marriage of the Nice People (1988)
• The Turn of Falling in Love (1990)
• The Nights of Zayande-rood (1990)
• Naser-ed-din Shah , a Film Actor (1991)
• Actor (1992)
• Hello Cinema (1994)
• Gabbeh* (1995)
• Bread and Flower-pot (1995)
• The Silence (1997)
• Test of Democracy (1999), with Farrokh-yar
• Kandahar (movie) (2000), brought him the Federico Fellini Prize From Unesco in Parisin 2001

His banned films in Iran

• The Turn of Falling in Love (1990), since 1990
• The Nights of Zayande-rood (1990), since 1990
• Bread and Flower-pot (1995), from 1995 until 1997
• The Silence (1997), from 1997 until 2000
• Naser-ed-din Shah, a Film Actor (1991), from 1992 until 1993

Films, in which he appeared (playing himself)

• The Marriage of Nice People (1988), made by himself
• Close-up (1988), made by Abbas Kiarostami
• Hello Cinema (1994), made by himself
• Bread and Flower-pot (1995), made by himself
• The Test of Democracy (1999), made by him and Farrokh-yar

Sources

This article first appeared in the Irana Esperantisto (Iranian Esperantist): Vidi kaj ne Vidi (To See and not to See), by A.R. Mamduhi, No. 3, Year 2, Spring 2003, 32 pp., pp. 3-5. Its sources are:

1. Persian book: Didan va Nadidan (To See and not to See), Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Tehran: Ney Publishing, 2002, 408 p.
2. Makhmalbaf Film House