Samira Makhmalbaf : At Five in the Afternoon

There are major films from other Central Asian republics--in fact a series of films from the former Soviet Central Asian republics was in NY recently and is now in Chicago--but I don't believe there are many films produced in those countries overall. During the Soviet era Kazakhstan was actually a regional center of film production but I suspect much of the financing and maybe even some of the technology went back to Moscow and St. Petersburg in the early 1990s. But there are film programs at the universities, cinema clubs, and so on there.

Iran produces quite a few films I believe, but many if not most of them are not too dissimilar from the commercial fare produced elsewhere in the Middle East and the subcontinent. It's rare that people outside of Iran get to see such films, although the local Persian market has a bunch of them. Many of the "art" films that premiere to acclaim in Western festivals are hardly seen at all in their native Iran; Kiarostami's Taste of Cherry had only one or two official screenings I believe, and I don't think his recent 10 has fared much better. Mohsen Makhmalbaf (Samira's dad) is a higher-profile figure there but still, of a number of Iranian immigrants I've met in Chicago, only one had even heard of him.

Anyway, as for Samira, her dad founded the "Makhmalbaf Film House" some years ago to train his family and friends to make their own films. He's collaborated on the screenplays of films by Samira and a film by his wife called The Day I Became a Woman. Mohsen's an interesting character; like Lars von Trier it seems important to him to establish a "brand" and also like V.T. his films are wildly divergent in their styles. His daughter adheres more closely to the mode of documentary realism that's become an accepted Iranian style after the films of Kiarostami. I liked The Apple and Blackboards a lot (The Apple especially) and am looking forward to this one. Supposedly there is "Palme d'or buzz" already.

but i guess the only other of his i've seen was a moment of innocence, which i found quietly whimsical, with a nod to godard or something.

blablablblabla why am i even posting on this thread?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/740000/images/_742295_samira_makhmalbaf150.jpg http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/745000/images/_745372_makhmalbaf300.jpg

rrrowr.

please continue.

I suppose this is the kind of thing that Kiarostami is trying to deal with when he includes himself (or a surrogate) in his films--the odd relationship between Westernized, well-off artistic elites from Teheran making films about uneducated, impoverished people in remote areas of Iran.

yes please

https://scontent.fman1-2.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/32207405_1341379399338720_6512131930769588224_n.jpg?_nc_cat=0&oh=1b30c21ceddb9a0edc014b5f5fc1d2ed&oe=5B8936E8

Looks great.