Born in Tehran, Iran, in 1975, Mitra Farahani graduated in graphic arts from Azad University in Tehran in 1997. She moved to Paris a year later and began working as an actress and artist. She spent a year working in Hamburg and chronicled her experiences in Tableau de bois (2000). She returned to Paris in 2000 and enrolled in ENSAD (Ecole national superieure des arts decoratifs). Her Short film Juste une femme / Just a Woman won a Teddy Award at the 2002 Berlin Film Festival.


FILMOGRAPHY

2004
Tabous—Zohre & Manouchehr
A daring documentary about sex and sexuality in Iran, based on an erotic poem by nineteenth-century Iranian writer Iraj Mirza.

2002
Juste une femme aka Just a Woman
Moravid is a transsexual woman living in Teheran. This short description alone triggers a whole array of western cliches about life in a muslim society—all of which this film questions by showing the complexities of lived reality. Especially compelling is Moravid's unapologetic account of her work as a prostitute and the depiction of sex work in urban Iran in this film. Winner of Teddy Jury Prize at the 2002 Berlin Film Festival.