Amin Maher (Persian: امین ماهر‎ , born in 1992 in Tehran,
Iran) is an Iranian queer artist, filmmaker and poet whose works deal
with the themes of gender and identity in relation to violence and
power structure. He is the son of an internationally acclaimed
filmmaker, Mania Akbari.Amin Maher began his cinematic activity as the
main actor in Abbas Kiarostami’s Ten which featured the real-life
relationship between his mother and Amin. Ten was nominated for the
Palme d'Or at Cannes Film festival in 2002 and received worldwide
attention. The French film magazine Cahiers du cinéma ranked "Ten" in
tenth place in its list of best films of the decade 2000-2009. Four
years after that, Maher performed the main role in Mania Akbari's
10+4, a continuation of the movie “Ten†which followed Akbari’s
battle with breast cancer. "10+4" screened at Cannes International
Film Festival and San Sebastián International Film Festival amongst
many other festivals and received critical praise. Afterwards, Maher
followed his film activities as an actor, editor and assistant
director with his mother, Mania Akbari on "6 Video Arts" and "From
Tehran to London" which participated in festivals such as Edinburgh
International Film Festival in UK and International Film Festival
Rotterdam in Netherlands.In 2010, Maher began studying at Tehran
University before being arrested for his political activities. He
subsequently left Iran to study filmmaking at Limkokwing University in
Malaysia and directed several short films. His first fictional short
film, “Sweet Gin and Cold Wine" was nominated for the best short
film at the 21st Oldenburg International Film Festival in Germany and
won an award of recognition at the Creative Open International Film
Festival (IOFF) in 2016. In November 2019, Maher finished his
documentary film, "Letter to my mother" which is stemming from his own
experience of childhood sexual abuse. Letter to my mother was selected
in competition at numerous film festivals around the world including
36th Kasseler Dokfest, 34th Mix Milano Film Festival and 15th Shorts
México. The film won several awards including the best short
documentary on Human Right at Venice Intercultural Film Festival and
Award of Recognition at Impact Docs Award. Letter to my mother was
nominated for the Golden Key Award at 36th Kassel Documentary film
festival where it had its world/national premiere. The film opens up a
cinematic discourse about anger, repression, violence and identity.
Letter to my mother was described as a fearless and strong examination
that chooses a radically intimate perspective. It is an examination
that touches upon the center of the pain and dares to look precisely.
It finds exact scenes for despair and cruelty and searches openly for
ways of coping.In 2019, Maher edited the feature documentary film,
“A moon for my father" directed by Mania Akbari and Douglas White.
The Guardian chose the film as one of the top 10 documentaries of the
year 2019. Maher is currently studying for his MA in Directing (Regie)
at Konrad Wolf Film University of Babelsberg and working on a
documentary feature film, "Libido" which was selected at CPH:FORUM,
Copenhagen International Documentary Festival in 2019. Amin Maher Top Movies & Young Movies