Makhmalbaf, who left Iran in 2005 following the election of controversial outgoing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, accepted the invitation to talk about his latest film The Gardener. The director has said the film was positively received by Israeli viewers and was screened three times to full houses.
Speaking to the Guardian, Makhmalbaf observed "I went there to take a message of peace. I try to unite people through arts, I am citizen of cinema, and cinema has no border, and in fact before my journey to Israel my film travelled to that country many years before."
Relations between the predominantly Jewish Israel (20% of the population are Arab) and the Islamic Republic of Iran have grown increasingly tense since the election of Ahmadjinejad. The Iranian authorities have cut all ties with the “Zionist regime” of Israel. Each side has been involved in violent incidents with the other, particularly in relation to the nuclear technology being developed by both countries.
Censorship and restrictions
In response to Makhmalbaf’s trip, all items related to the director’s work have been removed from the Iranian film museum. His decision to visit the country has been vocally criticised by both Iranian politicians and ‘intellectuals’.
Makhmalbaf’s most famous film is 2001’s award-winning Kandahar. Many audiences will also remember him for his prominent role in Abbas Kiarostami’s Close Up - an acclaimed ‘docufiction’ that tells the story of a man who pretended to be Makhmalbaf.
Several of Makhmalbaf’s films have been or remain banned in his homeland. The director currently resides in Paris.
A number of prominent Iranian filmmakers have been restricted in their filmmaking activities or even arrested by the local authorities. Director Jafar Panahi, for example, has been sentenced to six years in prison and a two-decade ban from making or writing films.
While under house arrest during the appeal process, Panahi secretly co-directed a ‘documentary’ about his predicament called This is Not a Film. For its Cannes premiere, the film - largely shot on the director's iPhone - had to be smuggled out of the country on a flash drive hidden inside a birthday cake.
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