Joy of Madness

Colour, 35 mm
Iran, 2003, 70 min
Section: Forum of Independents

Synopsis

Autumn 2002, Kabul, Afghanistan. Just after the fall of the Taliban, Samira Makhmalbaf, daughter of well-known Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf, began looking for actors and actresses. She sought to cast locals in At Five in the Afternoon (Panj é asr), a film about an Afghan girl who dreams of becoming president of Afghanistan. The casting call and location become, through the lens of her 14-year-old sister’s digital camera, an opportunity to investigate Afghan society and, in particular, the aspirations of women, their insecurities and their mistrust of the freedoms they have just re-obtained.

About the director

Hana Makhmalbaf (b. 1988, Tehran) is younger sister of Samira Makhmalbaf and renowned Iranian filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s youngest daughter. In 1997 she directed the short documentary The Day My Aunt Was Ill. She is also author of the poetry collection Visa for One Moment.