Bahman Ghobadi

Bahman Ghobadi (Persian: بهمن قبادی‎‎; Kurdish: به‌همه‌ن قوبادی / Behmen Qubadî) is an Iranian film director, producer and writer of Kurdish ethnicity. He was born on February 1, 1969 in Baneh, Kurdistan province. Ghobadi belongs to the "new wave" of Iranian cinema.^[1][2]

Biography

He was born in Baneh, a Kurdish small town in Kurdistan. His family moved to Sanandaj in 1981. Ghobadi received a Bachelor of Arts in film directing from Iran Broadcasting College. After a brief career in industrial photography, Ghobadi began making short 8 mm films. His documentary Life In Fog won numerous awards. Bahman Ghobadi was assistant director on Abbas Kiarostami's The Wind Will Carry Us.^[3]

Bahman Ghobadi founded Mij Film in 2000, a company with the aim of production of films in Iran about its different ethnic groups. His first feature film was A Time for Drunken Horses (2000), the first Kurdish film produced in Iran.^[4] The film won the Caméra d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. His second feature was Marooned in Iraq (2002), which brought him the Gold Plaque from the Chicago International Film Festival. His third feature, Turtles Can Fly, followed in 2004, winning the Glass Bear and Peace Film Award at the Berlin International Film Festival and the Golden Shell at the San Sebastian International Film Festival.^[5]

In 2006, Ghobadi's Half Moon won the Golden Shell at the San Sebastian International Film Festival. Iran's renowned actors Golshifteh Farahani, Hassan Poorshirazi and Hedyeh Tehrani acted in this movie. The music of the movie was made by Iran's musician Hossein Alizadeh. The film, which was a collaborative project by Iran, France, Austria and Iraq, was shot fully in Iranian Kurdistan. However, it narrates the story of a group of Iranian Kurdish musicians who would like to travel to Iraqi Kurdistan and organize a concert there.^[6]

In 2006, Index on Censorship gave Ghobadi an Index Film Award for making a significant contribution to freedom of expression through his film Turtles Can Fly.^[7]

In May 2009, his film No One Knows About Persian Cats won an Un Certain Regard Special Jury Prize ex-aequo when it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. This film chronicles the hardships facing young Iranian musicians seeking to evade censorship.

Filmography

Ghobadi at the presentation of his film Nobody Knows About Persian Cats in San Sebastián 2009

Notes and references

1. ↑ "Iranian New Wave, by Jeffrey M. Anderson". Greencine.com. Archived from the original on 2014-11-10. Retrieved 2013-11-07. 
2. ↑ The Iranian New Wave, Iranian filmmakers enjoy a golden age
3. ↑ Full cast and crew for Bad ma ra khahad bord, IMDd, retrieved November 10, 2012
4. ↑ Peter Scarlet. Kurdish Director, Stuck Between Iraq and Iran, The New York Times, December 16, 2007; retrieved November 10, 2012
5. ↑ Awards for Lakposhtha parvaz mikonand, IMDd, retrieved November 10, 2012
6. ↑ Jeannette Catsoulis. Harsh Realities and Mystical Power, The New York Times, December 14, 2007; retrieved November 10, 2012
7. ↑ http://www.mijfilm.com/newsdet.php?n=40&lang=1

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bahman Ghobadi.

• Bahman Ghobadi at the Internet Movie Database
• Profiling Bahman Qobadi
• Mij Film
• Index Film Award
• Profiling Bahman Qobadi
• An interview with Bahman Ghobadi, director of Half Moon 26 September 2006 with David Walsh and Joanne Laurier on the World Socialist Web Site