“I never studied film and I never wanted to become a filmmaker. I started to make films for the money because as the oldest son I had to provide for the whole family,” said Bahman Ghobadi on his Masterclass. He took up film direction and was pretty successful. One of his short films won an Iranian film prize and helped him secure a job in television.
In 2000, Ghobadi made his first Kurdish-speaking film A Time for Drunken Horses: “The Kurds inhabit the region that spans over four countries whose governments constantly refuse to support Kurdish artists. There aren’t any Kurdish film funds or organizations,” explained Ghobadi who later had to leave his Iranian homeland. “I went to New York for one year and lived in hotels for the next nine. Iranian regime censored my films but I censor them myself, for my people.” At the end of his masterclass, Ghobadi adviced the young filmmakers: “Always select the harder way, the one no one else wants to take. The real beauty of life lies in its struggles.”