Mania Akbari
| Mania Akbari مانيا اكبري |
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|---|---|
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| Born |
22 September 1974 Tehran, Iran |
| Occupation | Director, screenwriter, Actress, writer |
| Years active | 1991–present |
| Children | 1 |
Mania Akbari (Persian: مانيا اکبری , born 1974) is an Iranian filmmaker, actress, artist and writer whose works mostly deal with themes of sexual identity, women, marriage, abortion, infidelity and lesbianism. Her style, unlike the long tradition of melodrama in Iranian cinema, is rooted in modern visual arts and styles. Akbari, because of the themes discussed in her films and her opposition to censorship, is considered as one of the most controversial filmmakers in Iran. As an actress, she is probably best known for her role on Abbas Kiarostami's Ten.
Mania 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.
Later she was exposed to cinema by working as a cinematographer and assistant director in documentary films.
In 2002, Akbari and her son, Amin Maher, and her sister, Roya Akbari appeared in front of Abbas Kiarostami's camera for a documentary called Ten. The following year Akbari directed her debut film, a documentary called Crystal. In 2004, she wrote, acted in and directed her first feature-length film 20 Fingers, which won the best film prize at the Venice Film Festival's Digital Cinema section.
In 2007, Mania Akbari was diagnosed with breast cancer. Her struggle with cancer, as well as illness and body, became one of the key themes of her films and art works.
From 2007 to 2010, Mania 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 latest film, From Tehran to London (originally titled: Women Do Not Have Breasts), 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.
Since her move to London, various international retrospectives of Akbari's films has drawn attention to her cinema, among which retrospectives at the BFI, Oldenburg International Film Festival and the Danish Film Institute are the most notable.
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