Yassamin Maleknasr

Born in Tehran, Yassamin Maleknasr is a graduate of filmmaking from University of Southern California (USC) and did post-graduate work in Drama at Towson State University in Maryland. She made her first short film, Jazz Ballet in the U.S, and after several years working at American film companies, she returned to Tehran to perform in Dariush Mehrjui's film Sara (1993) for which she won a Best Supporting Actress Award from the Fajr film festival of Tehran. She has also acted in a number of other Iranian features. Maleknasr directed her debut feature film, The Common Plight in 1995, and has made several documentaries including Bababaghi, which documents the lives of lepers and their families living in the outskirts of Tabriz, and Iran through Foreign Eyes, in which foreign-born women express their views on life in Iranian society.

Afghanistan: The Lost Truth
A film by Yassamin Maleknasr, 2003, 64 min., Color
Iranian filmmaker Yassamin Maleknasr takes an unprecedented journey across Afghanistan from Herat to Balkh, becoming the only woman and filmmaker to h...