Rakhshan Bani-Etemad Iran

Rakhshan Bani-Etemad (1954, Tehran, Iran) was one of the first women to make films after the Iranian Revolution of 1979. She is now the foremost woman director in her country, enjoying both national and international renown. Bani-Etemad extends the boundaries of officially permitted imagination. Her work appeals to women in her own country and beyond, subtly researching and presenting womanhood and moving people’s hearts and minds. While never alienating the mainstream audience, her films have a distincly female perspective, a strong sympathy with the feminist cause and a preoccupation with female sensibility and the role of women in love and society. But Bani-Etemad does not want to be called a feminist, since she fears being confined by ideology. She is an artist first, and she needs the freedom to explore and explain positions that may not be placed high on the feminist agenda. The result is a true change of attitude through art.