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.
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