Friday, July 20, 2012

Summary of Mohsen Makhmalbaf


Mohsen Makhmalbaf was born in a deprived neighborhood in southern Tehran in 1957. Both of his parents were married for only six days.  After fighting over who would be the one to obtain custody of him, his father decided to kidnap him. He was kept as an implicit prisoner in his own house for two years because his father paid someone to kidnap him at the first glimpse. However, this situation brought good with it. During the time spent, he had an aunt that was a school teacher. She took up the task of educating him. Growing up in the politically thrilling ambiance of the time and under the influence of his stepfather that was a lawyer, Makhmalbaf was active in politics from an early age. He dropped out of school while he was still a teenager to join the Islamic militant group and formed a secret fight against the Shah's regime. Mohsen Makhmalbaf was arrested when he was only 17. He was sentenced to die in prison; nonetheless, his age got him away from death penalty. He was only ultimately sentenced to five years in prison. One of his partners did not have the advantage of age.
 During his jail time they tortured him. He described his torture in Surgery Of Soul. In 1978, the revolution brought an Islamic regime to power. This was also the revolution that freed him from prison; furthermore, he also gave birth to his creativity. After his release from the Pahlavi jail in 1978, he changed his position from political to cultural. He started writing stories, novels, articles and stage plays and later on started making films.  In 1981, Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s cinematic career started. Makhmalbaf did not attend a film school. He learned by watching films and reading books on filmmaking. The amount of books he read is more than someone who’s getting a doctorate degree. That shows he is a dedicated man and really wanted to change his life. Among his early work, he wrote Someone Else’s Death and The Sixth Person. In 1982, he made his first film Nasouh Repentance, about a bank clerk who sought true repentance while facing death. This was his first in a trilogy of highly didactic films with tough religious premise. Mr. Makhmalbaf's films from that period depict the often dark, hopeless lives of ordinary Iranians. In 1987, he produced The Peddler. It is a series of three stories. The first part focused on birth, the second part focused on life, and the last about death. The Cyclist was made in 1989. The movie was about a poor Afghan refugee in Iran, who was in desperate need of money for his sick wife. He decided to ride a bicycle for one week straight in return for the money he needed to pay his wife’s medical bills. The Marriage of the Blessed is a film he created 1989, based on a veteran traumatized by the Iran and Iraq War. These three films did really well at the festival circuit.  However, there were some critics. In 1983, he directed Two Sightless Eyes and Seeking Refuge. In 1984, he made Fleeing from Evil to God, and 1985, he produced Boycott. It is a fictionalized account of his time in prison. In 1991, Makhmalbaf became a divisive figure when the two films he made get banned, A Time of Love and The Nights of the Zayandeh-Rood, because they show physical love and raising doubts about the revolution. Through his film career, his wife, Fatemeh, was very active with him and played several roles in his films. Unfortunately she died and he married her sister, Marzieh. Mohsen Makhmalbaf‘s films have shown in seventy countries. Mohsen Makhmalbaf is a major figure in Iranian cinema. His films have shown the relationship between the individual and a larger social and political environment. As a self-made filmmaker, the films of Makhmalbaf are a vibrant, informative, and valuable contribution to the unique world of great filmmaker.
  Written by student: Donald

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