Film Forum

Marva Nabili was born in Iran where she studied painting at the University of Decorative Arts in Tehran. In 1967, she starred in SIYAVOSH AT PERSEPOLIS, directed by Ferydoun Rahnema, a film that marked the formation of 'New Cinema' in Iranian Cinema. This experience drew Nabili to New York to study filmmaking, where she received her undergraduate and graduate degrees in cinema. There, she wrote and directed a number of films, notably A TRANCE, SELF PORTRAIT, and NANETTE IN VERMONT. In 1977 Nabili returned to Iran to write and direct an eight-hour television series based on classic Persian fairy tales. In the same year she wrote and directed her first feature film, THE SEALED SOIL. Made without official sanction, the film had to be smuggled out of the country when Nabili was forced to self exile due to the political situation in Iran. It was shown to critical acclaim in the West, but has still never been shown in lran. Nabili’s 1982 film NIGHTSONGS is the story of the struggle of a Chinese immigrant family in New York City's Chinatown. It was one of six screenplays chosen to participate in the Sundance Institute and went on to be produced by American Playhouse.

Andrew Dickos is the author of Street with No Name: A History of the Classic American Film Noir, Intrepid Laughter: Preston Sturges and the Movies, and, recently,Honor Among Thieves: The Cinema of Jean-Pierre Melville. He is the editor of Abraham Polonsky: Interviews, a commentator on Paramount Home Entertainment's DVD of Preston Sturges's THE MIRACLE OF MORGAN'S CREEK, and the contributor on film noir to the Columbia World of Quotations.

Related Films