Mania Akbari

Mania Akbari (Persian: مانيا اکبری‎, born 22 September 1974[1]) is an Iranian filmmaker, artist, writer and actress whose works explore women's rights, marriage, sexual identity, disease and body image.[2] Her style, in contrast to the long tradition of melodrama in Iranian cinema, is rooted in the visual arts and autobiography. Because of the taboo themes frankly discussed in her films and her opposition to censorship, she is considered one of the most controversial filmmakers in Iran.[3] As an actress, she is probably best known for playing the lead role in Abbas Kiarostami's Ten (2002).[4]

Mania Akbari
مانيا اكبری
Akbari in 2014
Born (1974-09-22) 22 September 1974
Tehran, Iran
OccupationFilm director, screenwriter, artist, writer, actress
Years active1991–present
Children4, including Amin

Biography

Akbari was born in 1974 in Tehran, Iran. Her artistic activities, as a painter, started in 1991 when she took part in various exhibitions in Iran, as well as abroad.[5] She was later exposed to cinema, working as a cinematographer and assistant director on documentary films.[5]

In 2002, Akbari and her son, Amin Maher, and her sister, Roya Akbari, appeared in Abbas Kiarostami's docufiction, Ten. The following year, Akbari directed her debut film, a short documentary called Crystal. In 2004, she wrote, acted in and directed her first feature-length film, 20 Fingers, which won best film in the Venice Film Festival's Digital Cinema section.[6]

In 2007, Akbari was diagnosed with breast cancer, her struggle with the disease becoming one of the key themes of her films and art works.[6]

From 2007 to 2010, Akbari worked on numerous photography-based works that were featured in various galleries around the world, while she kept making documentary and fiction films until 2011, when during production of her film, From Tehran to London, members of her crew were arrested by Iranian authorities for filming without official permission. Scared she too might be imprisoned, Akbari fled Tehran for London.[7]

Since settling in London, various international retrospectives of Akbari's films have drawn attention to her cinema, among which retrospectives at the BFI, the Oldenburg International Film Festival and the Danish Film Institute are the most notable.[8][9][10]

Film career

Akbari's first feature-length film 20 Fingers (2004), a study of marriage and sexual identity, was screened in more than 40 film festivals around the world.[11][12]

Between 2004 and 2007, she made six video art pieces entitled Self, Repression, Sin, Escape, Fear, and Destruction, which were shown in numerous film festivals such as Locarno Film Festival and exhibited at museums such as the Tate Modern.[6]

In 2007, Akbari was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer and the film she made that year, 10+4, explores the sensation of living "with both life and death."[2] Akbari calls her second feature film a sequel of sorts to Kiarostami's Ten. It was exhibited at numerous festivals such as the San Sebastián International Film Festival and the Cannes Film Festival.[13] This film has also been screened in many international museums such as the Centre Georges Pompidou[14] and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.[15]

In 2010, Akbari made a documentary about capital punishment and the execution of Behnoud Shojaee, titled 30 Minutes To 6. Although after the disputed 2009 election, the filmmaking conditions in Iran were becoming more closed and controlled, she decided to make One. Two. One, her third feature-length film, there. In the same year, she started working on her next film, originally to have been called "Women Do Not Have Breasts". During the making of this film, numerous filmmakers were arrested in Iran, and since she opposed the State-imposed limitations on expression, she left Iran for London and finished the film under the new title of From Tehran to London.[1]

In 2014, Akbari made an essay film entitled Life May Be with British filmmaker and film historian Mark Cousins. This film was screened in several film festivals around the world such as the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival and the Edinburgh International Film Festival.[16][17]

In 2019, Akbari released a second epistolary essay film, A Moon for My Father, co-directed with the sculptor Douglas White, which one critic praised as "a form of digressive-poetic cinema, connecting images and ideas in a dream-associative logic".[18]

Cinematic style

Akbari's filmmaking style consists of long takes, hand-held camera and almost painterly control of colour which is called "a cross between fiction and documentary."[2] In interview, Akbari pointed to "architecture and mise-en-scène within a space" as the most important elements in her filmmaking. "When I'm creating my frame, I really want it so that when each frame is seen the audience can imagine the space surrounding it themselves. The way that I'm creating the mise-en-scène within each frame, I'm trying to, every second, break the theatrical boundaries that people are seeing. In my view, I actually feel that it's more like performance art than a theatrical performance. It's as if I create a space for every single character and they come and perform within that space and share something with their audience, and then they leave."[19]

Reception

Akbari's work has been described as "remarkably fresh, audacious and relevant."[1] The Guardian has noted that her feature films are "rivetingly human: pitiless, potent studies of domestic strife, and of the fight for happiness – and domination – in sexual relationships."[2]

Awards

Filmography
  • Crystal (2003)
  • 20 Fingers (2004)
  • 10 + 4 (2007)
  • One. Two. One. (2011)
  • 30 minutes to 6 (2011)
  • From Tehran to London (2012)
  • Life May Be (2014) (co-directed with Mark Cousins)
  • A Moon for My Father (2019) (co-directed with Douglas White)

Video arts
  • Repression (2004)
  • Sin (2004)
  • Escape (2004)
  • Fear (2004)
  • Devastation (2004)
  • I slept with my mother, father, brother and sister in the country called Iran (2012)
  • In My Country Men Have Breasts (2012)

Exhibitions

Video Arts

Art works

References
  1. From Tehran with love: the cinema of Mania Akbari, The F Word 9 July 2013, retrieved 27 January 2014
  2. Iranian film-maker Mania Akbari: 'Cinema threatens the government', The Guardian 15 July 2013, retrieved 27 January 2014
  3. "In other words: A talk with Mania Akbari". YouTube. Retrieved 28 May 2014.
  4. Festival de Cannes, Ten Archived 23 December 2015 at the Wayback Machine
  5. "What is Love?" Mania Akbari Talks About Life, Love, and 20 Angosht (20 Fingers), Bright Lights Film Journal issue 47, February 2005
  6. "Mania Film". Mania Film. 8 March 2012. Retrieved 28 May 2014.
  7. Tom Seymour. "Iranian film-maker Mania Akbari: 'Cinema threatens the government' | Film". The Guardian. Retrieved 28 May 2014.
  8. Ania Ostrowska (9 July 2013). "From Tehran with love: the cinema of Mania Akbari @ BFI PLUS competition - Blog". The F-Word. Retrieved 28 May 2014.
  9. "21. Internationales Filmfest Oldenburg | 10.-14. Sep. 2014: Retrospective Mania Akbari". Filmfest-oldenburg.de. Retrieved 28 May 2014.
  10. http://www.dfi.dk/Filmhuset/Cinemateket/Billetter-og-program/Serie.aspx?serieID=9464
  11. http://www.mania-film.com/festivals-and-screening/
  12. http://www.30bird.org/blog/reviews/mania-akbaris-20-fingers/
  13. "10+4 at Cannes international film festival, ACID section". Archived from the original on 20 August 2017. Retrieved 19 January 2016.
  14. Screening of 10+4 at Centre Pompidou
  15. Festival and Screening of Mania Akbari's movies
  16. https://film.list.co.uk/article/61537-edinburgh-international-film-festival-2014-mark-cousins-and-mania-akbaris-life-may-be-takes-inspiration-from-19th-century-letter-novels/
  17. http://www.kviff.com/en/programme/film/318652-life-may-be/
  18. Peter Bradshaw (21 March 2019). "A Moon for My Father review – a poetic meditation on body and beauty". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 December 2019.
  19. Feature by Josh Slater-Williams. (2 August 2013). "One. On. One: Filmmaker Mania Akbari in conversation | Interview". The Skinny. Retrieved 28 May 2014.
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