Director.................................... Screenplay.............................. Cinematography...................... Editor....................................... Sound...................................... Camera.................................... Executive Producer.................

SAMIRA MAKHMALBAF MOHSEN MAKHMALBAF EDRAHIM GHAFORI, MOHAMAD AHMADI MOHSEN MAKHMALBAF BEHROZ SHAHAMAT REZA SHEYKHI, HOSSEIN AMIRI IRAJ SARBAZ Marin Karmitz and Veronique Cayla present a co-production MK2 Productions and Makhmalbaf Productions in association with Hubert Bals Fund and the International Festival of Rotterdam

Starring ...................................

MASSOUMEH NADERI ZAHRA NADERI GHORBANALI NADERI

Winner, Sutherland Trophy fof Best First Feature, London Film Festival 1998

Samira Makhmalbaf

was just 17 years old when she directed THE APPLE. She was taught by her father, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, the celebrated Iranian film-maker, and she is also a fan of Abbas Kiarostami's work. Samira's film shares a common theme with Kiarostami whereby a real life situation is recreated using the people involved rather than actors. Here an old and uneducated father locks up his twin daughters because it says in the Koran that girls are like flowers - exposed to the sun they will wilt. Her second feature, 'Blackboards' firmly established the young director as one of the leading figures in the Iranian new wave when she became the youngest filmmaker to win the prestigious Prix du Jury at the Cannes Film Festival 2000, aged twenty.