Contents
Samira Makhmalbaf
Directing The Apple and winning Cannes Jury Prizes for Blackboards and At Five in the Afternoon.
The Apple · Blackboards
- Born
- 15 February 1980
- Birthplace
- Tehran, Iran
More people
Samira Makhmalbaf
Samira Makhmalbaf brought a young Iranian perspective to films about education, confinement and life across borders.
Early life
Film family
Grew up around the productions of her father, Mohsen Makhmalbaf.
Practical education
Left conventional schooling to train at the family-run Makhmalbaf Film House.
Career
- 1998
Teenage debut
The Apple reached Cannes' Un Certain Regard selection.
- 2000
Cannes award
Blackboards received the Jury Prize.
- 2003
Afghan setting
At Five in the Afternoon won a second Cannes Jury Prize.
- 2008
Further recognition
Two-Legged Horse won San Sebastián's Special Jury Prize.
Selected work
The Apple
A real family reenacts events surrounding two confined daughters.
Blackboards
Teachers carry boards while seeking pupils in Kurdish borderlands.
At Five in the Afternoon
A young Afghan woman imagines becoming president.
Beyond work
Family collaboration
Her sister Hana and stepmother Marzieh Meshkini are also filmmakers.
Exile
Left Iran with her filmmaking family as political pressures intensified.
Sources & photo credit
Life, career and references ↗Melbourne International Film Festival: Blackboards ↗Cannes: Samira Makhmalbaf ↗Photo: BBC Persian. CC BY 3.0 · Original image. Cropped and displayed in monochrome.
