Bahman Ghobadi (Persian: بهمن قبادی; Kurdish: بههمهن قوبادی, romanized: Behmen Qubadî) is an Iranian-Kurdish film director, producer and writer. He was born on February 1,
1969 in Baneh, Kurdistan province, Iran. Ghobadi belongs to the new wave of Iranian cinema.
Biography
He was born in Baneh, a Kurdish city in Iran. 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.
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. 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.
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.
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.
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.
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Filmography
Ghobadi at the presentation of his film Nobody Knows About Persian Cats in San Sebastián
2009
aphy
Film
Date
Golbaji
1990
short film
A Glance
1990
short film
Again Rain with Melody
1995
short film
Party
1996
short film
Like Mother
1996
short film
God's Fish
1996
short film
Notebook's Quote
1996
short film
Ding
1996
short film
Life in Fog
1997
short film
The Pigeon of Nader Flew
1997
short film
Telephone Booth
1997
short film
A Time for Drunken Horses
2000
Marooned in Iraq
2002
War is Over
2003
short film
Daf
2003
short film
Turtles Can Fly
2004
Half Moon
2006
No One Knows About Persian Cats
2009
Rhino Season
2012
As actor
Ghobadi made a cameo appearance in the
2019 film The Irishman, where he portrayed a prison cook who serves Jimmy Hoffa an ice cream sundae. While Ghobadi does not enjoy acting, he says he appeared in the film out of respect for Martin Scorsese and Al Pacino.