Mohsen Makmalbaf

One of the most popular and influential Iranian filmmakers is born in 1957 in a poor neighborhood in Tehran. He became a prolific writer of plays, essays, short stories, and finally screenplays. His first filmed script was 1981's The Explanation, filmed by Manuchehr Haghaniparast and he directed his first feature Nassouh's Repentance in 1983. Throughout the remainder of the decade, he wrote and directed roughly one film a year. With 1986's The Peddler, Makhmalbaf first began attracting international film-festival attention. With 1990's Time of Love and its immediate follow-up, The Nights of Zayandeh Roud, he came under the scrutiny of the censors, which promptly banned both features. With 1996's Gabbeh, he even found U.S. distribution for his work. In 1998 he was in competition at the Venice Film Festival with Sokout (The Silence). In 1999 he presented the anthology film Ghessé hayé kish (Kish Tales) at the Cannes Film Festival. He returned to Cannes in 2001 with Safar e Ghandehar (Kandahar) and won the Ecumenical Jury Prize.

FILMOGRAPHY

1983 Tobeh Nosuh
1984 Do Cheshman Beesu
1984 Este'aze
1986 Boycott
1987 The Peddler (Dastforough)
1989 The Cyclist (Bicycleran)
1989 Marriage of the Chosen (Arousi-ye Khouban)
1990 A Time for Love (Nobat e asheghi)
1991 The Nights of Zayandeh-Rood (Shabhaye Zayendeh-Rood)
1992 Nassereddin Shah, Actor-e Cinema
1993 The Actor (Honarpisheh)
1995 Salaam Cinema
1996 Gabbeh
1996 A Moment of Innocence (Nun va Goldoon)
1998 Sokhout
1999 Tales of Kish (Ghesse Haye Kish) – segment „The Door"
2000 Tales of an Island – segment „Testing Democracy"
2001 Kandahar (Safar e Ghandehar)
2002 Alefbay-e afghan – doc.
2005 Sex and Philosophy (Sex o phalsapheh)
2005 The Chair – short
2006 Scream of the Ants (Faryad moorcheha)
2009 The Man Who Came with the Snow
2012 The Gardener (Bagheban) – doc.
2013 Ongoing Smile – doc. 
2014 The President