E-Paper
The House of Makhmalbafs
Today, with 16 feature films like Kandahar and Nassereddin Shah Actor-e Cinema and 30 books behind him, Mohsen is a man at peace.
"When our producer agreed to the cuts demanded by the Iranian Censor Board on A Moment of Innocence all of us in the family decided to sell our house and bought back our own film. But there was no question of allowing the cuts." These words merely re-confirm the quiet, steely determination that dominates the persona of Mohsen Makhmalbaf, a world-renowned filmmaker.
Born to parents who divorced when Mohsen was a mere six-days old, the art of surviving came early to him. Brought up in fear by his mother and aunt, Mohsen was kept out of his father's sight for a year-and-an-half holed up in a room because they feared he'd be kidnapped. It was during this time that Mohsen was given lots of books to read to keep him busy.
The voracious reading habits that were inculcated then have borne fruit consistently since. Belonging to a poor family came with its own travails and by the age of eight Mohsen began working to support the meager income. A working class teenager and an Islamic activist in the early 70s, Mohsen was imprisoned for five years for stabbing a policeman - an incident that was recreated later on film specifically for A Moment of Innocence.
With time, however, as his experience with the world and in cinema grew Mohsen moved away from fundamentalism in the post-revolution Iran and helped found an artists' group called the Islamic Propagation Organisation. It was also around this time that Mohsen became a writer of plays, essays and short stories before moving onto screenplays.
Today, with 16 feature films like the critically acclaimed Kandahar and Nassereddin Shah Actor-e Cinema (Once Upon a Time, Cinema) and 30 books behind him, Mohsen is a man at peace. "I've gone on from making films to making filmmakers," he often says. "My cinema holds up a mirror to the society we live in. Unlike Hollywood which is like a factory churning out goods which don't have new things, our cinema teaches people to question what they see around them."
A reality which the entire Makhmalbaf family portrays through their films. Mohsen along with his wife Marziyeh, son Meysam, 16, and daughters Samira, 18, and Hana, 15, makes films for the Makhmalbaf Film House. Incidentally, The incident with the producer had resulted in the formation of the Makhmalbaf Film House - a school that would cater to every aspect of filmmaking and train other aspiring filmmakers. "We called it the Film House but we had no house those days," explains Samira, the filmmaker's eldest child and also an acclaimed filmmaker in her own right.
Despite the countless international awards that Mohsen has won, he remains a humble man. "All I've taught my children is belief in self. Only if you were to believe in yourself will miracles happen," he reiterates constantly. Going by what he's managed, there is little doubt that he knows what he is talking about.
