Film Forum

Born in the southern port city of Abadan (the setting of THE RUNNER), Amir Naderi is one of Iranian cinema’s most influential directors and screenwriters. For a Museum of Modern Art tribute in 2018, curator Dave Kehr wrote, ‘"Naderi has pursued his passion for filmmaking around the globe, with no regard for physical borders or language barriers.”

A passionate cinephile since childhood, Naderi began his career as a still photographer on Iranian films, making his directorial debut with the 1971 feature GOODBYE FRIEND. He rose to international fame with the films WAITING (1974); THE RUNNER (1984); and WATER, WIND, DUST (1989). After moving to New York in the early 1990s, Mr. Naderi made such acclaimed films as MANHATTAN BY NUMBERS (1993), ABC… MANHATTAN (1997), MARATHON (2002), SOUND BARRIER (2005), VEGAS: BASED ON A TRUE STORY (2008), and CUT (2011), Naderi’s love letter to Japanese cinema, with Hidetoshi Nishijima (later star of Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s DRIVE MY CAR, 2021).  

Born in Tehran, Madjid Niroumand, who plays the central role of the resourceful young street kid Amiro in THE RUNNER, was accidentally discovered by director Amir Naderi when he spotted the boy on the front cover of a sports magazine, in a group photo of a winning track and field team. But it was 11-year-old Madjid who jumped off the cover. In a Eureka moment, Naderi exclaimed, “That’s my Amiro!” 

Madjid's performance in THE RUNNER was named #12 in a list of “The 25 Greatest Child Performances in Cinema History” on the film site Taste of Cinema. The Los Angeles Times called it “the greatest performance ever given by a child."

Ghasem Ebrahimian is an award winning film director, screenwriter and cinematographer, who came to the US from Iran in 1974. His student thesis film, WILLIE, earned him a Student Academy Award. In 1980, he co-founded Ebrafilms, which produced over 40 documtaries for Italian and French television. He has also worked on a number of documentaries for the British TV series “The South Bank Show,” including “Cinema of Fire,” filmed in Iran and focusing on the works of leading Iranian filmmakers such as Bahram Beyzai, Abbas Kiarostami, Jafar Panahi and Darius Mehrjuie. Ghasem’s feature film THE SUITORS was an official selection for the Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for the Camera d’Or.

Ghasem has collaborated with the Iranian visual artist Shirin Neshat on a number of filmed videos as co-writer and director of photography. As cinematographer, he has worked on a number of international features, including GREATER THINGS (filmed in Japan), ICAROS: A VISION (filmed in the Amazon), SINS OF MY FATHER (filmed in Turkey), AMERIKATSI (filmed in Armenia), and, most recently, Shirin Nashat’s LAND OF DREAMS (filmed in New Mexico) and THE BITTER TEARS OF ZAHRA ZAND (filmed in London), among many other credits.

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