Narges Kalhor
Narges Kalhor was born and raised in Tehran in 1984. After graduating from high school in 2001, she began studying feature film directing at the Tehran Film Academy. She was mentored by various well-known filmmakers such as Abbas Kiarostami. In 2007, she continued her studies in visual communication at the Kamalolmolk University. At the same time, she worked as a film editor at the advertising film agency ARASB in Tehran and shot five short films. In 2009, Narges Kalhor participated in the Nuremberg International Human Rights Film Festival (NIHRFF) in Nuremberg with her short film Die Egge. Her application for political asylum attracted international attention due to her being the daughter of the highest-ranking cultural advisor to the then Iranian President Ahmadinehjad. She has since been granted asylum in Germany, where she studied at the University of Television and Film in Munich. In 2010, she received a full scholarship from Vodafone Chance. Her second film as co-director at the film school, Shoot Me, was nominated for the German Short Film Award and won Best Film at the Nonfiktionale 2014. Narges Kalhor now works in the field of film art for various exhibitions and museums. She received the prize for best video art for Kafan at the Underdoxfilm festival in Munich in 2014 and exhibited the video installation Nosferatu Is Not Dead as a group work at the Lenbachhaus in Munich in 2016. Her third graduation film Gis was nominated for the Starter Film Award of the City of Munich. In 2019, her graduation film In the Name of Scheherazade celebrated its world premiere at Vision Du Réel and was honoured with the Goethe Institute Award for Best Documentary Film at the Dok-Leipzig Film Festival. Narges received the Bavarian Culture Prize in 2019 and the City of Munich’s Starter Film Prize a year later. Her most recent short film “sensitive content” also celebrated its world premiere at Vision Du Réel, won the Young Talent Award at the Oberhausen Short Film Festival, and was shown at numerous renowned festivals worldwide.
