Batin Ghobadi was born on October 23rd, 1979 in Baneh, Iran. He began his artistic career as a painter, before writing and directing short films: The Painter (2000), Surely Today (2002), Incommunicado (2003), Broken Soldier (2004), Ready for Death (2008), and Ask the Wind (2010) – which won the Crystal Bear at Berlin International Film Festival in 2010. Mardan (2014) was his debut feature. It was selected as the Iraqi entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards 2015, and had premiere at Toronto International Film Festival in 2014. Currently, he is working on his new film „Aylan Kurdi”. Motivation to tell this story were immigration from unsafe and war-sticken countries of the world to the Europe and huge tragedy od refugees, especially children with a scarred past and unknown future. “Aylan Kurdi” will be a homage to Aylan, the 3 year old boy who drowned up in the Mediterranean and all other children’s lost dreams who died in the waves.
Feature films:
2017 Aylan Kurdi upcoming
- In the early hours of Sept. 2nd, 2015, Alan’s body had washed up along the shore, half in the sand and half in the water. His sneakers were still on his feet.
- Production: Mij Film
- Producer: Bahman Ghobadi.
- Written and directed by: Batin Ghobadi
- Approximate date of relase: 2017
2014 Mardan
- Mardan is a Kurdish police officer with traumatic childhood memory. He is trying to solve the mystery of Morad’s dissaperance. One day he meets his wife- Leila, a young Kurdish woman who came to Iraq to find her husband.
In the meantime, Karzan, a cementry worker, struggles to deal with remorse after a misadventure. - Production: Mij Film
- Producer: Bahman Ghobadi
- Written and directed by Batin Ghobadi
- Duration: 110 minutes
- Music: Kayhan Kalhor
- Director of the photography: Saba Mazloum
- Film Editing by: Hayedeh Safiyari
- Production Management: Golriz Ehtiati
- Assistant director: Shaho Nemati
- Visual Effects by: Majid Panahi
- Digital imaging technician: Kemalettin Sert
- Colorist: Hootan Haghshenas
- Cast: Hossein Hasan, Helly Luv, Feyyaz Duman, Ismail Zagros, Mehdi Bayramlou, Mir Murad Bedirxan, Beritan Yeldistan
- Awards:
2015, 14th !f Istanbul International Independent Film Festival, Special Jury Award – Turkish Film Critics Association, Istanbul, Turkey - Festivals and screenings:
2014, Toronto International Film Festival, Canada
2014, 45th Intl Film Festival India Goa
2014, 37th Mostra Cinema: Oriente Medio Brazil, Sao Paolo, Brasil
2014, Dubai International Film Festival, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
2015, Goteborg International Film Festival, Sweden
2015, Glasgow Film Festival, Scotland
2015, Vilnius International Film Festival Kino Pavasaris, Vilnus, Lithuania
2015, Moov Film Festival, Turnhout. Belgium
2015, Seattle International Film Festival, Seattle, U.S.A
2015, Indiebo, Festival De Cine Independiente de Bogota, Bogota, Columbia
2015, Silk Road Intl Film Festival, Dublin, Irleand
2015, Sinemardin International Film Festival, Mardin, Turkey
2015, Mill Valley Film Festival, San Rafael, U.S.A
2015, 20-27th October, Kurdish Film Festival, Paris, France
2015, London Kurdish Film Festival, London, England
2016, Copenhagen Film Festival, Copenhagen, Dannmark
Short films:
2009 Ask the Wind
- A group of Iranian students want to take pictures in a deserted village. In a gust of wind, one of them looses a headscarf what leads her to a corps of a man.
- Production: Mij Film
- Producer: Bahman Ghobadi
- Written and directed by: Batin Ghobadi
- Duration: 13 minutes
- Camera: Bahman Nadbiad
- Music: Mahddar Aghajani
- Editor: Hayedeh Safiyari
- Cast: Nasrin Shojaei, Zahra Mirdad, Samad Farhang, Aghdas Kaji
2008 Ready for Death
- A metaphorical and figurative production of suicidal persons amidst the noise and confusion of metropolitan anonymity.
- Production:A Mij Film & Mitos Film Co-production
- Written & Directed: Batin Ghobadi
- Duration: 7 minutes
- Cinematographer: Ekram Haydo
2004 Broken Soldier
- The unfulfilled love story between a solitary soldier on sentry duty and a Kurdish country girl in which they communicate to each other through mirror reflections. The story epitomizes the cruel and inevitable antagonism between decency, innocence and true love on the one hand and the harsh, crude and often violent pecuniary balance of power in social life on the other hand.
- Production: Mij Film
- Producer: Bahman Ghobadi
- Written & Directed: Batin Ghobadi
- Duration: 24 minutes
- Cinematographer: Hamid Ghavami
2003 Incommunicado
- A Kurdish man tries to install an antenna in a remote area of Iranian Kurdistan so that his son can watch television.
- Production: Mij Film
- Producer: Bahman Ghobadi
- Written & Directed: Batin Ghobadi
- Duration: 11 minutes
- Cinematographer: Hamid Ghavami
2002 Surely Today
- Two minor civil servants who works for the health services, show up in a Kurdish village in order to vaccinate the kids. The film depicts the naïve, funny contradictory interactions between traditional rural roots on the one hand and rationality issued from the modern state services on the other.
- Production: Mij Film
- Producer: Bahman Ghobadi
- Written & Directed: Batin Ghobadi
- Duration: 12 minutes
- Cinematographer: Massoud Salami
2000 The Painter
- Synopsis: Five innocent children, encouraged by an elderly gentleman, are drawing on the ground with sticks of chalk but the intrusion of a woman coming from a nearby neighborhood modifies the scenery.
- Production: Kurdistan public audio visual company
- Written & Directed: Batin Ghobadi
- Duration: 14 minutes
- Cinematographer: Mozaffar Parto Andazan