Rakhshān Bani-E'temād is an internationally and critically acclaimed Iran

Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

ian film director

Film director

A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...

 and screenwriter

Screenwriter

Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...

. Widely considered as Iran's premier female director, her films have been praised at international festivals as well as being remarkably popular with Iranian critics and audiences.

Career

She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in film directing from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts, Tehran University and began her career as a documentary filmmaker for IRIB, (Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting). She worked as an assistant director before directing her first feature film Off Limits (1987). Social theme is dominant in her works and women play the leading role in most of her films. She made an international breakthrough with The Blue-Veiled which, including others, was awarded the Bronze Leopard in the 48th Locarno Film Festival (1995). She has been the member of jury in several local and international festivals.

Personal life

She is the wife of the film producer Jahangir Kosari and mother of actress Baran Kosari

Baran Kosari

Baran Kosari is a Crystal Simorgh winning Iranian actress. She is the daughter of director Rakhshan Bani Etemad, and film producer Jahangir Kosari.-Biography:...

.

Filmography (as a director)

• Kharej az Mahdude (1986 - aka Off-Limits)
• Zard-e Qanari (1988 - aka Canary Yellow)
• Pul-e Khareji (1989 - aka Foreign Currency)
• Nargess (1992)
• Rusari-ye Abi (1995 - aka The Blue-Veiled)
• Banoo-ye Ordibehesht (1998 - aka The May Lady)
• Baran-O-Bumi (1999 - aka Baran and the Native - short)
• Zir-e Pust-e Shahr (2001 - aka Under the Skin of the City)
• Ruzegar-e ma (2002 - aka Our Times - documentary)
• Gilane (2004)
• Khunbazi (2006 - aka Mainline)
• We Are Half of Iran's Population (2009)

Honors and awards

• Bronze Leopard, 48th Locarno Film Festival (for The Blue-Veiled)
• The Prince Claus Award
  Prince Claus Awards
  The Prince Claus Fund was inaugurated in 1996, named in honor of Prince Claus of The Netherlands. It receives an annual subsidy from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs....
  
  , 1998
• Best Achievement in Directing, Asia Pacific Screen Awards
  Asia Pacific Screen Awards
  The Asia Pacific Screen Awards is an international cultural initiative of the State Government of Queensland, Australia, through Events Queensland, to honour and promote the films, actors, directors, and cultures of Asia-Pacific to a global audience and to realise the objectives of UNESCO to...
  
   (for Mainline, with Mohsen Abdolvahab)
• Honorary doctorate, University of London
  University of London
  -20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...
  
   (2008)

See also

• Persian women's movement
  Persian women's movement
  This article is primarily about the women's movement. For information about women in Iranian/Persian culture, please see Iranian women..The Iranian women's movement involves the movement for women's rights and women's equality in Iran. The movement first emerged some time after the Iranian...
  
  
• List of Iranian Intellectuals
• Langerood
  Langarud
  Langarud is a city in and the capital of Langarud County, Gilan Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 65,369, in 18,875 families.Langarud is located on the south coast of the Caspian Sea...
  
   (village of Espili in Gilan)

External links

• Joanne Laurier and David Walsh, An interview with Rakhshan Bani-Etemad, co-director of Gilaneh, World Socialist Web Site, 3 October 2005, WSWS.org.
• Her profile at CityofWomen
• Rakhshan Bani-Etemad Film Season April 2008 - London, Payvand, March 25, 2008, http://www.payvand.com/news/08/mar/1260.html.
• London to honor Iran's Bani-Etemad, PressTV, Friday, April 4, 2008, http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=50232§ionid=351020105.
• Bani-Etemad film season in London, IRNA, April 7, 2008, http://www1.irna.ir/en/news/view/menu-239/0804079641165007.htm.
• The Cinema and Rakhshan Bani-Etemad, April 19, 2008, Centre for Media and Film Studies, SOAS, University of London, http://www.soas.ac.uk/events/event42962.
• Bidisha, What will British audiences make of a great Iranian auteur?, The Guardian, April 23, 2008, http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/film/2008/04/bfi_rakhshan_bani-etemad_season.html.
• Honorary Doctorate of University of London for Rakhshan Bani Etemad, in Persian, BBC Persian, Wednesday July 23, 2008, http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian/arts/story/2008/07/080723_ge-banietemad-london.shtml.
• We are half of the Iranian population (ما نیمی از جمعیت ایران هستیم), a non-partisan documentary by Rakhshan Bani Etemad in which amongst others women ask the Presidential candidates of the Iranian presidential election, 2009
  Iranian presidential election, 2009
  Iran's tenth presidential election was held on 12 June 2009, with incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad running against three challengers. The next morning the Islamic Republic News Agency, Iran's official news agency, announced that with two-thirds of the votes counted, Ahmadinejad had won the election...
  
  , questions, in Persian, 7 June 2009: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5.
  Note: The text in the opening part of this documentary grants permission for the non-profit public viewing of it.