Hana Makhmalbaf
Hana Makhmalbaf (born September 3, 1988, in Tehran) is an Iranian filmmaker. She is the daughter of Mohsen Makhmalbaf and Fatemeh Meshkini and the sister of Samira Makhmalbaf. She is married to Hani Washian and has a child named Nickan Washian.
She is known for three films: Joy of Madness (2003), Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame (2007), and Green Days (2009). Joy of Madness, a documentary about the making of her sister Samira’s film At Five in the Afternoon, won the Lina Mangiacapre Award at the Venice Film Festival in 2003 and the Special Jury Prize at Tokyo Filmex. Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame won the Paolo Ungari UNICEF Prize at the Rome Film Festival and the Peace Film Award at the Berlin International Film Festival. Green Days, about the 2009 Iranian presidential election, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2009 and later screened at Venice; it includes footage from protesters gathered from ordinary people.
Makhmalbaf grew up around film. She attended Cannes at age three and had a short film shown at Locarno when she was eight. She joined her father’s Makhmalbaf Film House in Tehran, though she later returned to some schooling. Her debut feature, Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame, helped bring her international recognition. After Green Days, she worked on her father Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s film The President. In 2015 she announced a new project, Single Mother, with involvement from several family members.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 13:43 (CET).