Slideshow
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Photo courtesy Centre Pompidou, Paris
THE RUNNER Conversation with director Amir Naderi and star Madjid Niroumand, moderated by Bruce Goldstein
Friday, October 28
8:40
NOTE: This screening is SOLD OUT. A standby line will form at the box office 30 minutes prior to each show.
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."