Biography

Mitra Farahani (in Persian: میترا فراهانی; born 1975) is an Iranian filmmaker and painter who currently lives in Paris. Mitra Farahani was born on January 27, 1975, in Tehran, Pahlavi Iran. Farahani has a degree in graphic art (1997) from Islamic Azad University in Tehran. After graduation she moved to Paris in 1998. In 1999, she lived in Hamburg briefly. In 2000, she studied at École nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs (ENSAD) in Paris.The film Tabous - Zohre & Manouchehr (2004) is about her artistic pursuits.She was arrested on June 17, 2009, by the Iranian government, on her arrival in Tehran from Paris and held in Evin Prison. It is said that her arrest is linked to the crackdown of opposition by the Iranian government following the presidential election, and by angering the Iranian government by making non-Islamic films outside Iran. The Iranian government released her from prison on 30 June 2009.After having screened several of her films at the festival, she was selected as a member of the jury for the 64th Berlin International Film Festival in 2014. She returned to the Berlin International Film Festival in 2022 with her documentary See You Friday, Robinson, selected in the section Encounters.