An Iranian playwright suffers a creative crisis as her country convulses on the eve of this year’s election. Features never before seen footage shot on the streets of Tehran. —tiff.net
Hana Makhmalbaf (Persian: حنا مخملباف ) (born September 3, 1988 in Tehran) is an Iranian filmmaker. She is the younger sister of filmmaker Samira Makhmalbaf and daughter of filmmakers Mohsen Makhmalbaf and Marzieh Makhmalbaf.
Her first short film was shown at the Locarno Film Festival in Ticino, Switzerland when she was eight years old. Her first full film was in 2003 and entitled Joy of Madness. The film is a documentary about the making of Samira’s At Five in the Afternoon. Hana was able to take advantage of being only 14 to amass much candid digital footage when Samira was trying to persuade Afghani people to take part in her film. The disadvantage was that she was nearly forbidden from being at its premiere at the Venice Film Festival. This is because the film was unrated and Italy has rules concerning minors attending unrated films.
Her first feature film, Buddha Collapsed out of Shame won an award at Festival du nouveau cinéma in Montreal, Canada in 2007, as well… read more