Born in Tehran in 1979, Samira Makhmalbaf is the daughter of Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf. She got her first taste of the cinema when she was eight, playing a cameo role as a little gypsy girl in her father’s THE CYCLIST (1988). After leaving school at 15 because she found the teachers incompetent, she began learning to make movies, mostly by watching and assisting her father but also in a film course at a private school. She directed two short videos, a drama entitled Desert and a documentary entitled Style in Painting. Last year she worked as an assistant to her father on his latest film THE SILENCE (Le silence), which was shown at 1998 Montreal World Film Festival.

Her latest film is Sib (The Apple) which has been a hit so far at many international film festivals.  She was also the youngest member of the jury at Locarno International Film Festival in 1998.