Mohsen Makhmalbaf

Talking with Rivers is a conversation between Iran and Afghanistan, two neighbouring countries that used to be one land. The two countries are now sharing their stories after they parted from each other, from the era of Soviet invasion to the civil war and the Taliban era, up to and including the rise and fall of America and the return of the Taliban.

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On May 18, 2017, the Busan International Film Festival’s Program Director Kim Jiseok died suddenly and unexpectedly from a heart attack while on a business trip to the Cannes Film Festival. In the face of his unexpected demise, his old friends and colleagues in the film industry recall what tormented him in his last days.

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During the 1970s the Middle East was a battleground for the Cold War; liberal pro-Western forces battled with pro-Soviet Arab Nationalists and Baathists. But in 1979 a series of events – the Iranian Revolution, Egypt’s peace with Israel, the Mecca Mosque Siege, and the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan – contributed to a radical change in the mind-set of the region and its leaders. It was the start of the meteoric rise of radical Islam.

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A nostalgic look at the birth and death of arthouse film distribution in Russia in the early 2000s. The story of the company Cinema Without Borders and its two founders, Sam Klebanov and Anton Mazurov.

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It is a story of a unique family in the world; A documentary on how a former political imprisoned revolutionary in a religious closed society like Iran, turned his house in to an open Film School and pave to way for his family to became world class film maker and top International award winners , including Cannes Venice , Berlin, San Sebastian , Locarno and many.

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Simin Daneshvar was an Iranian pioneering novelist who lived nearly for a century and under 3 different political regimes. She and her husband, (Jalal Al Ahamd) have been regarded as "Iranian Simone de Beauvoir, and Jean-Paul Sartre". But they had a very different fate. Simin's life is a mirror of what has happened to Iranian women throughout a century, from unveiling the hijab and playing important roles in society to imposing hijab and staying at home in the Islamic regime. This film looks at her life through the history of women's movement in Iran.

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An Iranian filmmaker and his son travel to Haifa, Israel to investigate a religion that originated a hundred and seventy years ago. Youth from all over come to Haifa to join this religion, and those who serve in the gardens that surround the holy places develop peace-loving attitudes through their interactions with nature. The filmmaker shares with his son the idea that if the Iranian people had adopted a peaceful religion, Iran would not be preparing a nuclear attack on Israel, but the son believes that all religions tend to bring about destruction. As a result of these arguments, father and son separate from one another and pursue their own paths.

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Alain de Botton, Edgar Morin, Fredric Jameson, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, and Orhan Pamuk converse with Brazilian thinkers and artists, creating a dialogue based on their theories and constructing a reflection on identity in the contemporary world.

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Today Iranian cinema is one of the most highly regarded national cinemas in the world, regularly winning festival awards and critical acclaim for films which combine remarkable artistry and social relevance. Iran: A Cinematographic Revolution traces the development of this film industry, which has always been closely intertwined with the country's tumultuous political history, from the decades-long reign of Reza Shah Pahlevi and his son, the rise of Khomeini and the birth of the Islamic Republic, the seizure by militants of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, and the devastating war with Iraq.

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Tracing the history and influence of Iranian cinema and its filmmakers.

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Documentary showing the backstage of production of Samira Makhmalbaf's film Panj É Asr(At Five in the Afternoon), in Kabul, after the fall of the Taliban regime. Everything was recorded with a small digital camera by Samira's 14-year-old sister Hana.

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Documentary showing the life of children of the Afghan villages bordering Iran, and how their life and culture were affected by Taliban regime.

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The film and camera of Maysam Mkhamlbaf, Samira's brother follows her like an invisible eye. From her first subconscious presence as an actor, when she was one months old and crying in her mothers arms, while acting in a feature movie made by his father up to her first conscious appearance as an 8 year old child actor in the movie Cyclist made by his father in Pakistan. From when Samira made her first movie Apple at 17 or when she goes to visit the two imprisoned girls in the movie "Apple" and when she is occupied with changing the professional actor of the movie "Blackboard" with a non-professional actor (ordinary people) and even when she was attending the Cannes Film Festival in the years 1998 and 2000.

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An anthology directed by Mohsen Makhmalbaf (Testing Democracy) and Dariush Mehrjui (Dear Cousin is Lost)

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A semi-autobiographical account of an incident in Makhmalbaf's life when, as a 17-year-old, he stabbed a policeman at a protest rally. Two decades later, he tracks down the policeman he injured in an attempt to make amends.

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This is a film about the making of Salaam Cinema by Mohsen Makhmalbaf in Tehran and it’s eventual screening in Cannes Film Festival. Viewers are introduced to the personal and professional sides of Makhmalbaf and also to the uncontrollable passion for the cinema, held by the Iranian youth.

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Hossain Sabzian and some of his associates discuss his character, his life-long obsession with cinema and his attitude towards the film he starred in, "Close-Up" (1990).

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Director Mohsen Makhmalbaf claims to have never seen a movie before making his first film. Doubtful as it sounds, this boast matches perfectly with the controversial artist's personae. Stardust Stricken -- Mohsen Makhmalbaf: A Portrait documents the work of this Iranian filmmaker. After spending time in prison for political dissidence, Makhmalbaf discovered the social potential of the cinema. Some of his projects include Marriage of the Blessed and The Actor. While creating around 20 films, the outspoken director established new ideas about the nature of his work. In this release, Makhmalbaf speaks about art, human behavior, and his evolving fundamentalist beliefs.

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At his cinema in Rome, the Nuovo Sacher, Nanni Moretti anxiously oversees preparations for the premiere of the film Close-up, by Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami. Meanwhile Disney's The Lion King is taking Italy by storm.

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Makhmalbaf puts an advertisement in the papers calling for an open casting for his next movie. However when hundreds of people show up, he decides to make a movie about the casting and the screen tests of the would-be actors.

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This fiction-documentary hybrid uses a sensational real-life event—the arrest of a young man on charges that he fraudulently impersonated the well-known filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf—as the basis for a stunning, multilayered investigation into movies, identity, artistic creation, and existence, in which the real people from the case play themselves.

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A group of friends embark on a magical journey through amazing nature to meet a poet who has spent a lifetime in prison for his poems. It’s a journey where reality and imagination merge…

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Talking with Rivers is a conversation between Iran and Afghanistan, two neighbouring countries that used to be one land. The two countries are now sharing their stories after they parted from each other, from the era of Soviet invasion to the civil war and the Taliban era, up to and including the rise and fall of America and the return of the Taliban.

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22-year-old Claudia is a single mother who lives with Marghe, her sixyear-old precocious daughter. When Claudia is kicked out of her house for failing to pay the rent, she leaves Marghe to an old woman next door.

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Short film from omnibus 'Beautiful 2015,' commissioned for the Hong Kong International Film Festival Society.

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The President is the story of a dictator of an imaginary country in the Caucasus, who is forced to escape following a coup d’état, and begins a journey to discover his country in the company of his five-year-old grandson. The two travel across the lands that the President once governed. Now, disguised as a street musician to avoid being recognized, the former dictator comes into contact with his people, which he comes to know from a different point of view.

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An Iranian filmmaker and his son travel to Haifa, Israel to investigate a religion that originated a hundred and seventy years ago. Youth from all over come to Haifa to join this religion, and those who serve in the gardens that surround the holy places develop peace-loving attitudes through their interactions with nature. The filmmaker shares with his son the idea that if the Iranian people had adopted a peaceful religion, Iran would not be preparing a nuclear attack on Israel, but the son believes that all religions tend to bring about destruction. As a result of these arguments, father and son separate from one another and pursue their own paths.

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A man enters a bar, sits and observes, not speaking. Gradually, the silent presence of the stranger disturbs the other customers.

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Serikpai and Amir grow up without a father, who once went to work in Russia, but never returned. They are waiting for him and hoping. Waiting for her husband and wife Polina. She remembers the short happiness of her former life. She tries to resist the current life, but it is given to her at too high a price…

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A wealthy boy hires a poor child to carry him around like a horse.

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A girl believing in God marries an atheist, who is consumed by doubt. They decide to spend their honeymoon in India...

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In the midst of a mid-life crisis Jan, a 40 year old dancing teacher, decides to instigate a revolution against himself. His first act is to summon each of his four lovers, who are unaware of each other, to join him at the dance studio where we assume he is a tutor. His revelations to the women prompt a discourse about love and the fleeting nature of happiness. But when he comes to the fourth and final woman, he finds that his own philosophy of love is not as easy to apply as he had presumed. He realizes that the more the contemporary world has become sexually oriented the farther it has moved away from love...

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A man whose job collecting garbage from the streets. But from this work he becomes aware of the secrets of those houses he collecting garbage from and that lead him to involve in some troubles.

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Documentary showing the backstage of production of Samira Makhmalbaf's film Panj É Asr(At Five in the Afternoon), in Kabul, after the fall of the Taliban regime. Everything was recorded with a small digital camera by Samira's 14-year-old sister Hana.

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After the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan and the restriction of women in public life, a preteen girl is forced to masquerade as a boy in order to find work to support her mother and grandmother.

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Nogreh is a young Afghan woman living with her father and her sister-in-law, Leylomah, whose husband, Akhtar, is missing. Beyond the issue of Akhtar, Leylomah is most concerned with how to feed her baby. She cannot provide milk for her baby as her own hunger is preventing her from lactating. Nogreh, however, aspires toward a life in a western styled democracy. Although the Taliban are no longer in power in Afghanistan, traditional forces are still active in the country. Nogreh often displays signs of rebellion, such as wearing a pair of white pumps instead of the traditional slipper beneath her burqa. But mostly, Nogreh wants to be educated. Without her father's knowledge, Nogreh is attending a secular girls school. Ultimately, she wants to become President of Afghanistan. With the help of a Pakistani refugee who likes her as a woman, Nogreh tries to understand exactly what forces led to current world leaders being elected, those forces which she wants to emulate.

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Documentary showing the life of children of the Afghan villages bordering Iran, and how their life and culture were affected by Taliban regime.

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After an Afghanistan-born woman who lives in Canada receives a letter from her suicidal sister, she takes a perilous journey through Afghanistan to try to find her.

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A girl reaches the age of nine and is supposed to act as a grown woman according to her family. A girl participates in a bike race against the will of her husband. An elderly woman decides she wants to buy all the things she always wanted but could never get.

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Itinerant Kurdish teachers, carrying blackboards on their backs, look for students in the hills and villages of Iran, near the Iraqi border during the Iran-Iraq war. Said falls in with a group of old men looking for their bombed-out village; he offers to guide them, and takes as his wife Halaleh, the clan's lone woman, a widow with a young son. Reeboir attaches himself to a dozen pre-teen boys weighed down by contraband they carry across the border; they're mules, always on the move. Said and Reeboir try to teach as their potential students keep walking. Danger is close; armed soldiers patrol the skies, the roads, and the border. Is there a role for a teacher? Is there hope?

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An anthology directed by Mohsen Makhmalbaf (Testing Democracy) and Dariush Mehrjui (Dear Cousin is Lost)

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Khorshid, a blind child growing up in Tajikistan, is constantly distracted by music and sounds. This frequently causes him to be late to his job as an instrument tuner even though he runs the risk of being fired at a time when his family is in danger of being evicted from their house.

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After twelve years of imprisonment by their own parents, two Iranian sisters are finally released by social workers to face the outside world for the first time.

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A semi-autobiographical account of an incident in Makhmalbaf's life when, as a 17-year-old, he stabbed a policeman at a protest rally. Two decades later, he tracks down the policeman he injured in an attempt to make amends.

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An elderly couple go about their routine of cleaning their gabbeh, while bickering gently with each other. Magically, a young woman appears, helping the two clean the rug. This young woman belongs to the clan whose history is depicted in the design of the gabbeh, and the rug recounts the story of the courtship of the young woman by a stranger from the clan.

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Makhmalbaf puts an advertisement in the papers calling for an open casting for his next movie. However when hundreds of people show up, he decides to make a movie about the casting and the screen tests of the would-be actors.

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A rural young man comes to the capital under the pressure of his peers, to acclaim some fortune for himself

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The film follows a character known as The Cinematographer, who is looking for someone called Atieh (Future). As he calls out to her, he is magically transported back in time from the early twentieth century to the reign of Naser al-Din Shah in 19th century Iran. Captured by the Shah's guards, he shows films from the history of Iranian cinema to the Shah. The Shah is entranced and eagerly shows his family the apparently magical medium.

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Three episodes, all with relatively similar plots about a love triangle between a woman and two men.

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A film about an anthropologist and his daughter during three periods: before, during, and after the Iranian Revolution. The daughter works in the accident & emergency department of a hospital, which is never empty of suicidal patients. The reason behind each suicide attempt is different, especially before and after the revolution. Looking for a reason to live, one of the suicide patients falls in love with the anthropologist’s daughter.

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Haji is severely traumatized by the war with Iraq. Back from the front, he's unable to adapt to civilian life. Despite family opposition, his fiancée stands by him as together they challenge both the authority of family and state to lead their own lives.

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The wife of Nasim, an Afghan immigrant in Iran, is gravely ill. He needs money to pay for her care, but his day labor digging wells does not pay enough. A friend connects Nasim to a two-bit promoter who sells tickets to watch Nasim ride a bicycle continuously for a week. The promoter brings in sick and aged spectators, haranguing them to find hope in Nasim's strength. Aided by his son, who feeds him as he rides, Nasim grinds out the days and shivering nights. Local officials believe this may be a plot and Nasim may be a spy; they try to sabotage him as do those who bet he won't finish the week. Will desperation alone get Nasim the money? Is any triumph an illusion?

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The movie consists of three episodes that explore the lives of poor and desperate in Iran. In episode one, a very poor couple with many crippled children abandon their newly born baby in hopes that it will have a better future. In the second episode, a mentally impaired and isolated young man tries to take care of his senile mother who is almost dead. In the third episode, a cowardly and desperate peddler tries to escape from his boss.

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Valeh, a member of a leftist organization, is arrested by the SAVAK and sentenced to death. In prison, he reconsiders his relationships with members of his political cell, and begins to doubt the validity of the ideas for which he is condemned. At the same time, his comrades pressure him to make a sacrifice for their cause, and his beloved wife experiences personal problems and economic hardships.

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The silence of this sleepy little town is soon disturbed when the residents begin to receive threatening phone calls. No one knows who is making them. The police fail to find any evidence leading to the anonymous offender. It seems the further they investigate, the less they know. Is it possible that the whole town is in danger? An intense and captivating horror that is filled with suspense.

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Iman wants to go and fight in the Iran-Iraq War, but he has some problems that he has to solve first. The problems consist of his daughter’s wedding and treating his blind son. He is busy trying to solve these two problems when his other son returns from the front with wounded legs. Iman forgets about going to the front and goes to several hospitals with his two sons seeking care for them. When the hospitals cannot solve his sons' problems he takes them to a holy place to be cured.

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Five men escape to a remote island in order to fight the Devil. Four of them give into the temptations provided by the Devil, and die. However the last man is able to defeat the Devil by accepting God.

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Lotfali-Khan, a bank employee, faints. When they're going to bury him, they find out that he's still alive. This accident makes Lotfali-Khan looking for forgiveness. He goes to people and asks them to forgive him but he doesn't reach the true peace of mind that easy.

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