Narges Kalhor نرگس کلهر

Born 1984 in Tehran and raised there. In 2001 she began studying film directing at the Tehran Film School. Among others she was supervised by Abbas Kiarostami. In 2007 she studied visual communications at the Kamalolmolk University of Applied Sciences. At the same time, she worked as a film editor for an advertising agency in Tehran and made short films.

In 2009, Narges Kalhor visited the Nuremberg International Human Rights Film Festival (NIHRFF) with her short film “DIE EGGE”. She applied for political asylum and thus attracted international attention because she is the daughter of the senior cultural advisor to the then Iranian President Ahmadinehjad.

She received asylum in Germany and studied at the Munich University of Television and Film. Her second film there, the co-directed “SHOOT ME” was nominated for the German Short Film Award and won the Nonfiktionale 2014.

Narges Kalhor also works video artist for various exhibitions and museums. In 2014 she received the Award for Best Video Art for “KAFAN” at the UNDERDOX Film Festival in Munich and in 2016 exhibited the video installation “NOSFERATU IS NOT DEAD” as a group work in the Lenbachhaus in Munich. Her third university film “GIS” was nominated for the Starter Film Award of the City of Munich.

Narges Kalhor’s graduation film “In the Name of Scheherazade” celebrated its world premiere in 2019 at Visions Du Réel in Nyon and won the Goethe-Institut’s Documentary Film Prize at the DOK Leipzig as well as the Bavarian Culture Award. The film was invited to national and international festivals. It was released in Swiss cinemas in February 2020 (Distributor Cinelibre).